Cross-party pals

sir – Bruce Kent’s obituary (June 10) brought back memories of an unlikely friendship with him as a student at London University, where I was an active member of the Conservative Party and chairman of a student Conservative group.

His kindness, humour and generosity of spirit meant that his politics and CND activities never came between us. Many years later, when I was a Conservative on Leeds City Council, I entered the Civic Hall one day and found him about to speak to a group of Left-wing Labour councillors. The horror on their faces, when we flung our arms around each other as old friends, was amusing.

There is a lesson here for today’s woke socialists, who claim they would not have Tory friends.

Ann O’brien

Leeds, West Yorkshire