SO, Eric Leaver thinks that opposing the Tories in Ribble Valley is a "pointless pantomime" (LET, January 31).

Perhaps we could go back to the days of Lord Waddington and beyond when democracy in Ribble Valley meant doffing your cap to the local Tory squire and that was your lot. Somehow, I rather suspect we've moved on a little from those days.

Far from being the political basket case Mr Leaver suggests, the Labour outlook in Ribble Valley is, actually, rather bright at the moment. In 1997 I tripled the Labour vote and in last year's European elections, Labour came second in the constitency, pushing the Liberal Democrats into third place.

The European election was Labour's least successful for a decade. Yet in Ribble Valley, we pulled nearly 1,000 votes clear of the Liberal Democrats whose vote fell by a staggering 22 per cent. No wonder Nigel Evans has reacted so tetchily to my come-clean call over his links with the tobacco industry.

Quite rightly, Peter Mandelson was forced to resign after failing to live up to the standards expected of a top flight politician.

I find it quite staggering that Nigel should accept hospitality from a tobacco firm and then vote for an amendment which could have been written by the tobacco industry. To argue that banning advertising -- as Nigel did -- will not help people give up smoking is ludicrous.

Why do tobacco companies advertise? Surely, like any other business, they want to increase consumption of their products. Isn't that the point of advertising? And isn't that why they are so keen to prevent the ban being introduced?

This has nothing to do with party political point scoring. It is about integrity and whether Nigel Evans and a number of other senior Conservatives were doing their duty as an opposition or doing the bidding of the pro-smoking lobby.

MARCUS JOHNSTONE (Labour prospective parliamentary candidate, Ribble Valley), Oaktree Close, Ingol, Preston.