It’s disgraceful for the Conservative leader David Cameron to use the Karen Matthews criminal case for political ends.

To link the so-called benefit culture and the unemployed with failure and crime is despicable.

The silence has been deafening from his party for years when it comes to people who have committed terrible crimes who were previously successful and well educated.

I hope the Tory party doesn’t believe that previously successful people like OJ Simpson or the highly educated murderers like Dr Harold Shipman and the failed business millionaire Christopher Foster, who murdered his family and burnt down his home, should be seen as role models for society.

If the Tory party does then I’m glad I’m a 53-year-old failure – an unemployed male on benefits without a criminal record.

The Conservative Party has some serious thinking to do and changes to make before the British public will vote them into power again.

Ian Hunt
Pavilion Road

Worthing