JULIAN Sturdy, MP for York Outer, stated in The Press (March 13) that he was considering voting against his own Government if the proposed national insurance changes for self-employed people announced in the Budget were not altered.

I can understand his reticence, seeing as The Press report that a large proportion of the 12,000 self-employed people living in York actually live in his own constituency of York Outer, but why did he not consider voting against his party when the bedroom tax was introduced, when family credit was reduced, when the decision to remove the Personal Independent Payments from severely disabled people.

And more recently why did he seem to agree that the Government are right when they state that it is correct to reduce and even remove housing benefit for single young people who for one reason or another cannot live at home with their parents, and will result in many thousands more young people becoming homeless and therefore living on the streets.

I think he appears to be full of self-interest and what I mean by that is he is trying to decide how many votes it could cost him.

Howard Perry, St James Place, Dringhouses, York