I am responding to the recent letter from John Higgins under the heading of “Loose figures”.

I have carefully checked the text of all personally addressed letters sent out during the election campaign by Stephanie Peacock. The mistakes claimed by Mr Higgins do not appear in any of them. Just to be completely sure I have checked every leaflet and the Halesowen News wrap around. Again the mistakes are not there. Other members of Stephanie’s team have carried out the same checks.

Only two statistics have been used on the economic position of working families. They are: “working people are £1600 a year worse off under David Cameron” and “under this Tory-led Government people are £30 a week worse off.” The weekly loss has been rounded down from £30.76.

The nonsense figures stated by Mr. Higgins have not been used. I can only assume that he is a political opponent who is prepared to invent a story in the hope of discrediting Stephanie Peacock.

In the unlikely event of him producing the evidence of his claim by sending copies of the letters to me, Stephanie and I will be happy to make a public apology.

John Bills Secretary, Halesowen & Rowley Regis Labour Party 14 Rosafield Avenue, Halesowen