Let Boris Johnson actually do what was promised in the Tory manifesto
SIR – Conservative Party members received an email from Boris Johnson on Tuesday headed “My plan to deliver”, addressed to his supposed supporters. It is a windy and imprecise laundry list of aims and platitudes out of which, one fears, will emanate many more measures not wanted by the supporters to whom he lays claim.
A rule of thumb should be: if it was in the 2019 manifesto, do it, and quickly; if it was not in the manifesto, do not do it, or anything like it.
If the Prime Minister cannot see his way clear to doing what he was elected to do, he should clear the way for someone else to.
Bob Lyddon
Wells-next-the-sea, Norfolk
SIR – Mr Johnson says: “What matters is what we deliver and what we do.” Grand announcements and cash giveaways excluded, exactly what is he doing?
We need firm, detailed plans, clearly communicated to people, that will set us on a route to solving our current problems. Housing, employment, benefits, education and the NHS all need plans.
We cannot survive by throwing ever more cash at organisations that are not delivering or corporations that cynically manipulate rules to fleece the public.
Gillian Courage
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – “Ban gas boilers to reach net zero, demands Boris Johnson’s infrastructure tsar” (report, June 7). It is precisely this sort of thing that angers and worries so many voters. Mr Johnson does not seem to grasp the damage it does to his supposedly Conservative government.
Miranda Gudenian
Honiton, Devon
SIR – Boris Johnson would make a very good chairman if he were in corporate business. He would charm investors, advance the image of the company, communicate with employees and media and enthuse all.
However, he would need a very good chief executive actually to run the show. This is what is now needed in a deputy PM.
Terry Hodges
Wootton, Kent
SIR – The most pressing reason for the Prime Minister to continue is that he is the only Western leader Vladimir Putin fears.
Fiona Crosbie
Milngavie, Dunbartonshire
SIR – It is often said that there is no obvious successor to replace Boris Johnson. But that doesn’t mean no one will emerge and grow into the role. How obvious a choice was Margaret Thatcher before she became prime minister?
Eldon Sandys
Pyrford, Surrey
SIR – If Boris Johnson wants to leave behind any sort of positive legacy he must ensure that he is succeeded by Lord Frost, who is the only person on the Conservative horizon likely to complete Mr Johnson’s half-done and bungled Brexit.
He must facilitate Lord Frost’s entry to the House of Commons as quickly as possible so that he is eligible to stand in the elections for party leader.
Mr Johnson must then tell his fellow MPS and the electorate that he has decided to stand down as PM because Brexit is more important to the country’s future than his own career and ambitions, and there are still several outstanding unfulfilled manifesto promises that only David Frost is capable of addressing.
But does Boris Johnson have the courage, the honesty, the integrity, the humility and the decency to resign with dignity? If he does not, his legacy will be a shambles and Britain will be back in the EU.
Richard Tracey
Dinan, Côtes-d’armor, France
SIR – Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, is right to draw attention to Jeremy Hunt’s record as health secretary, if he is to be considered a candidate for the next prime minister (report, June 7).
He was health secretary in 2016 when Operation Cygnus was reviewing and updating the procedures for preventing or limiting the effects of a pandemic, should such an event occur. One wonders how differently the arrival of Covid might have been tackled if the Operation Cygnus findings had been published. Robert Hood-wright
Bodmin, Cornwall
SIR – Surely Larry the cat for PM. He keeps his own counsel, knows the territory and has years of paws-on experience.
Bill Collier
Earby, Lancashire