I don’t think this needs much in the way of introduction. I rarely find the time these days to write on here, or indeed write to our vertebrae-lacking MP. But I can’t not, considering the awfulness that has unfolded. Please do similar: the easiest way is via this site. Please be polite: don’t sink to the squalid standards of our Prime Minister and his outriders.
Dear Darren
I’ve been reluctant to write to you for some time, due to the utter lack of deviation you offer from the Whip’s office line. A similar sentiment has been expressed to me by many other constituents, who find it rather insulting to ask a serious question of great importance and receive back an anodyne response that looks cut+pasted from some Conservative CQ template. Remember your defense of Dominic Cummings road trip to Cumbria? I do, and many others do, and we won’t be forgetting your response.
However, I am moved to write as I feel your failure to offer a public response to the Boris Johnson / Downing Street parties is untenable. This, in turn, renders your position untenable. A representative who not only fails to represent his constituents, but can’t even do the honorable thing and explain why, is defrauding those who pay his wages.
I am therefore putting down a series of simple yes or no answers for you to answer
- In light of the interim Sue Gray findings, which state clearly that the parties at Downing Street were ‘serious failures of leadership and judgment’, and the confirmation of repeated parties so far, will you now be sending in a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister to the 1922 Committee? Please note, I am basing this question on the clear, unequivocal findings of this interim report, so there is no requirement for awaiting the finding of the ongoing police investigation to respond.
- Throughout the pandemic, through my work as a community journalist, I interviewed many people who had made significantsacrifices and endured unimaginable loss due to the restrictions in place during the pandemic. Nurses who risked their lives in little or no PPE to help others, then couldn’t approach their family when returning home. The freshly qualified care home worker, who spent her first ever shift holding up an iPad to a dying resident so her family, barred from seeing her in person, said goodbye for the final time via Zoom. These people are heroes, and have been insulted by this flagrant rule-breaking by the leader of your party. Will you apologise to them?
- Earlier this week, the Prime Minister used paedophilia as a shield for his own shortcomings, when in a shockingly ill-judged and utterly dishonest response he claimed the Leader of the Opposition was responsible for the failure to prosecute the rapist Jimmy Savile. This has been condemned by the victims of Savile, and many in your own party. This is Trumpian levels of fake news, and part of the continued erosion of basic tenets of trust, truth and decency. Do you stand by the Prime Minister’s comments, as so many of your colleagues do, believing that weaponsing rape victims is all part of ‘the cut and thrust of parliament’ as your colleague Dominc Raab claimed?
- In the two years of being the MP for Broxtowe, are you proud of your track record? What will you pledge to do differently in the next two years?
- Will you pledge that going forward as our MP, you will represent your constituents and not tacitly endorse lies, mistruths and other forms of disassembling that seems rife on the front benches right now? If not, can you look anyone in the eye and admit you were an accessory, albeit a tiny, irrelevant footnote, to this degradation of standards?
I would normally end such a letter with no expectation of a speedy reply, but since it was recently revealed that you are the UK’s most expensive MP, claiming a staggering £280,000 on top of your salary (hey, it’s always good to see Broxtowe top the charts!), and your excuse was the necessity of dealing with correspondence, I should probably expect a response written on vellum, tied with Nottingham lace, and hand-delivered by a smart-suited pageboy. Receiving personal visits to my home, from your staff, is something you’re evidently practiced at. Save us all a few bob, duck, and just stick it in an email.
Best
Matt Turpin
Beestonia 
Well said Matt. I wrote to Henry to ask him to distance himself from a leader who partied while my mum was dying from Covid in a care home. I pointed out that I said goodbye to her via a kindly nurse’s IPAD because I followed the rules. And yes, I received the cut and paste reply from Tory Central Office. It’s hard to put into words just what an expensive waste of space the man really is.
While agreeing wholeheartedly with the letter, I can only add that since it was perfectly evident what kind of person Johnson was years ago, and what sort of mis-leadership he would offer, voters should not be surprised, or complain. The country gets the leaders it deserves!
Mike Rooke (Sherwood, but an ex-Beeston resident.
Brilliant Matt. I’ve lost count of letters I’ve sent him! Andy
Excellent letter Matt. I’ve also written to Darren Henry on several occasions and have received nothing except for the two times I received the standard cut-and-paste response. One of them was a feeble answer which appeared to be for a question I had not asked.
I too was left wondering how he could blame being the most expensive MP in the House of Commons (£280,000 as widely publicised recently) on dealing with correspondence.
Well said, I have written to this MP on several occasions, last one being about a vote if no confidence. I of course got the standard ‘wait for Sue Greys report’ , absolutely sick of the level of none action by this so called representative of Broxtowe. The expenses bill is laughable, is there anywhere a breakdown of this can be seen…? Of course not.
It is almost enough to make you miss the tyrannical monster, Soubzasaurus. She may well have preyed directly on the eggs of other dinosaurs and probably was responsible for pushing a Woolley Mamooth or two into pools of amber in her time, or claiming that I was making death threats on her when it was obvious I was talking about A wider sense of Justice.
However, Anna was at least warm blooded principled, vertebrae who had no trouble standing up to protect her nest, or to take down cold blooded reptiles and strange species of fungus that now pass for office in the Conservative Party. One might even say, that her fire breathing antics at least kept friend and foe warm (and often slightly amused) on a winters night.
I concur. And £280k extra!! That said, decency, moral integrity and truth-telling demand a lot of correspondence in order to be circumvented. Invertebrates rule!