I WANT to start by apologising to you because we should not be having a general election now.

We should be getting on with sorting the problems our country faces, not least finding a way through this crucial period on the Brexit fiasco.

I ALWAYS thought it was the job of politicians to sort out problems for voters. But this election has been called because some politicians want you to sort their problems out.

It goes against everything I stand for as someone who aspires to be an advocate that gets on with the job and won’t stop until I’ve found a way through.

Our body politic was given a job by the electorate in 2017: find a way through the Brexit challenges. And here we are only two years later coming back empty handed.

That, in a nutshell, is why I did something really strange as an opposition MP: I voted against having this election.

I was one of only 20 MP’s who did so, but I feel so strongly that having this election lets Boris Johnson off the hook.

His Brexit deal was a betrayal to the promises he made to Northern Ireland and would put a customs border within….*within*…the United Kingdom.

He promised we would leave by today, and we haven’t. And by law he would have had to hold a Budget in the next couple of weeks which he desperately wanted to avoid. Why?

Because when you have a Budget the Independent Office of Budget Responsibility has to lay before parliament the independently verified assessment of the state of government finances.

This includes the impact new announcements will have on debt, borrowing, and our ability to manage a sustainable budget.

You see why he wanted to avoid that!

Since he’s become prime minister he’s committed to spending over £100bn and has simultaneously promised to cut taxes for business and the rich.

He desperately needed an escape route, and that’s why he was so desperate for a general election.

Peter Kyle is the Labour MP for Hove