• AS chair of Islington Liberal Democrats, I have to correct the long list of inaccuracies in Patrick Edlin’s letter, (Voters remember Lib Dems’ coalition record, June 14). Ironic when the same letter complains about amnesia.

The EU referendum was enacted not by us but by the Conservatives in 2015, after the Coalition. The Lib Dems passionately campaigned to Re­main, and for a People’s Vote on any deal since.

All 2010 general election manifestos, including Labour’s, included austerity budgets to address collapsed public finances after the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Lib Dems have opposed the bedroom tax since 2014 and have demanded a reversal of cuts to universal credit since they began in 2015.

In fact, in the 2017 general election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies judged that Lib Dems’ increases to benefits were “much larger” than Labour’s.

Finally, in 2000 the Lib Dem council inherited an £800m deficit from Labour in Islington. The limited sale of properties was necessary to repair finances, and build in the borough the first new schools in 30 years and the first new social housing in 20 years.

The point that Lib Dem Kate Pothalingam was making in her original letter should not be lost among the inaccuracies of Mr Edlin’s reply.

Because it relates not to the past but the future: we can’t afford to end austerity and the bedroom tax, reverse cuts to universal credit, restore maintenance grants and expand the pupil premium, and build new social homes in Islington if we do Brexit. We need to be clear about this.

PIERRE DELARUE
Chair, Islington Liberal Democrats