MR Walker of Barrowford asked (LT, December 31) why I had not replied to his email of November 18, to which the answer is that I cannot recall ever having seen it.

Would not it have been polite to check this by telephone before criticising me in the press?

More particularly, he asks why the auditors have refused to sign off the EU accounts.

The answer is that the auditors HAVE done so.

Each year however, they attach a caveat because 80 per cent of the EU budget is administered by national governments, including our own, and officials in Brussels have no direct control over their accounting procedures.

CHRIS DAVIES, Liberal Democrat MEP.