I recently received a newsletter from MP Mike Freer, in which he is guilty of seriously understating the level of unemployment in his constituency.

I think Mr Freer should write again to everyone who received his newsletter and say whether this was a mistake or a deliberate attempt to mislead residents. Either way, he should be ashamed.

The current rate of unemployment in Finchley and Golders Green is 6.1 per cent, not 2.6 per cent as Mr Freer claims in his newsletter and on his website.

Mr Freer needs to get his facts right if he wants to claim that Conservative economic policies are working.

The recovery has been needlessly delayed by the Conservatives, and Finchley still has a long way to go before we get back to the living standards and record low unemployment achieved under the last Labour Government.

Everyone welcomes an increase in employment but any new jobs have been created against the odds by local businesses and by people going self-employed, with no help from the Conservatives.

In Finchley and Golders Green we still have fewer jobs, higher unemployment and more people on Jobseeker’s Allowance than we had before the international financial crisis in 2008. Conservative policies and cuts have delayed the recovery by at least three years. They have still not achieved the level of growth they inherited from Labour. But that wasn’t in Mike Freer’s newsletter.

Andrew Smith

Golders Green Road, Golders Green