WHEN I read Councillor Steve Kay’s letter (HAS, Nov 13) describing Nigel Farage as a “statesman” I wondered if he meant a “New Statesman” in the mould of the late Rik Mayall?

Not long ago, Nigel Farage described Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal as “not Brexit”. He was right.

That deal conceals shoddy arrangements that Boris Johnson once said he’d never do, selling out the Democratic Unionist Party, continuing payments to the EU and abiding by the rules of the European Defence Fund as the former Conservative MP Patrick Mercer warned.

Now I quite like Nigel Farage as person but his decision to pull Brexit Party candidates from Tory-held seats contradicts his previous stance. It was unprincipled but probably dictated by his financial backers.

Given how the Conservatives have treated the North-East, it makes me think of being mugged for a wallet and then running after the mugger to give him the credit cards.

Roger Backhouse,

Upper Poppleton, York.