THE local election results were hardly announced when the Lib Dems proudly proclaimed theirs “a result for a people’s referendum”.

This is politicians’ speak for nonsense. 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU in what was heralded as the biggest turnout of the electorate in living memory.

In contrast, local council elections always attract a very poor turnout, simply meaning that the total number of votes cast for the Lib Dems won’t come even close to 17.4 million. On bank holiday morning, I got up to hear another Lib Dem man on the Today programme, repeat the same nonsense, adding the Government should take note of the electorate. Surprisingly, despite the BBC’s avowed intent to have robust interviewers, the comments were not even challenged, never mind robustly.

Since the elections the media has overwhelmingly blamed the Conservatives’ and Labour’s catastrophic results on lack of progress in leaving the EU. This is understandable. On Teesside for example, the only MP to argue valiantly in the House of Commons to get what the people voted for is Simon Clarke. Although I have not watched all the debates, I have never seen any of our other MPs contributing to this very important subject. In fact I have rarely seen them in the house at these times.

We would surely have had two, had James Wharton not lost his Stockton seat at the last election. It was James who set the ball running when he introduced his “ten-minute rule bill”.

Colin Hatton, Marton