Sir – Duncan Enright’s party is in no position to accuse David Cameron of hypocrisy. He tells us in his letter last week that “Labour backs reform, but not these austerity measures” – but forgets the detail.

There is good reason for that: Mr Corbyn’s belief is that Labour spent too little before the financial crisis. The only answer Labour ever has is: more spending, more borrowing.

The sole reason the public sector is having to make savings at all is because Labour’s last period in government left behind wrecked public finances: overseeing a rise in in-work poverty while at the same time trebling spending on tax credits to £30 billion a year, leaving us with the biggest peacetime deficit in history, the deepest recession since the war and hundreds of billions of debt.

With his emphasis on what he calls “Team West Oxfordshire”, Mr Enright is ignoring the proposed devolution deal for Oxfordshire which will bring devolved spending decisions down to a local level, something this government is making a possibility.

West Oxfordshire is lucky that the 41 elected Conservative councillors have ensured that WODC is one of the most efficient and high-performing councils in the country: the second lowest council tax, with no increase for the past five years, leading the way in sharing services to save money, with full employment and helping maintain a thriving economy with full employment and low levels of crime.

It is quite right that David Cameron stands up for local services and local residents as a constituency MP: that is his job.

He remains an outstanding local MP, at the same time as being head of a government that has already given two million more people the security of a good job, and is introducing Bills to deliver three million new apprenticeships and 30 hours of free childcare. That is a record to be proud of, for Westminster and West Oxfordshire.

Councillor Robert Courts
Cabinet member for housing and communities
West Oxfordshire District Council