Guardian – 25 January 2020

There is nothing “mysterious” about the fact that I do not use email for constituency correspondence: it is openly stated on the homepage of my – very extensive – website, and has been remarked upon in the press from time to time previously. Nor am I in the least “uncontactable”, as Bridget Craig (Letters, 23 January) knows perfectly well, having corresponded with me by letter without difficulty.

Letters, phone calls, and, where appropriate, surgery appointments are perfectly adequate for people who genuinely need my help, as the many letters of thanks quoted on my website fully confirm. Only mass, manipulative campaigners and obsessive individuals find this a problem – and so they should!

Much of the organised abuse which has caused many MPs to “burn out” and withdraw from public life results from their opening up themselves and their long-suffering staff to interactive online communications by email and social media. Indeed several have confided that they wish they had adopted my unshakable policy right at the outset. 

Dr JULIAN LEWIS MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA