Anne McIntosh has always been a helpful MP

i AM dismayed at the tenor of some letters to the Yorkshire Post decrying the abilities of Miss Anne McIntosh as MP for the Malton and Ryedale area. My letter is factual and I can only speak as I have found her.

She has always responded rapidly to any communication I have sent her and the contacts she has have proved helpful. Some of your letters refer to the number of people who have resigned from the local Conservative Party, suggesting she was the cause. In my case, factually not.

From: Jane Mitchell, Barkston Ash, North Yorkshire.

HAVE I missed something? What has Anne McIntosh done to upset the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Party? So far, the coverage of this nasty in-fighting has achieved nothing but to distance would-be voters from forming anything other than a negative and jaundiced view of current politicians.

From: Dennis Johnson, Firbeck Road, Bramham.

I AM finding it difficult to form an opinion on the dispute in the Thirsk and Malton constituency because – unless I have missed it – it has never been spelled out what Anne McIntosh has done, or not done, to annoy her party members.

At the 2010 election the Tory vote was over 20,000 in a low turnout and would almost certainly have been much higher if the election had not been delayed due to the death of one of the candidates. And yet a small clique of some 560 members are to decide whether those voters will have the opportunity to support Ms McIntosh once more in the 2015 election.

Of course there will be nothing to prevent Ms McIntosh standing as an independent candidate. If I were one of her constituents, I would vote for her, if only as a protest against what appears to be a silly squabble by local party members. If she won it would be interesting to see if the national Conservative Party would ask her to accept the Tory whip.