Letter: Zinoviev myth

Sir: I am surprised that The Independent should resurrect (22 June) the myth that the Zinoviev letter caused Labour to lose the 1924 general election. All the evidence suggests that there is no way Labour could have won in 1924. They were still a minority party but their vote went up by nearly a million.

The real losers were the Liberals who lost over 100 seats and more than a million votes. The real significance of the 1924 election was that it changed the political landscape from a Conservative- Liberal spectrum to a Conservative-Labour spectrum. One Labour MP at the time said he had never "seen MacDonald put in so sure a stroke" in dishing the Liberals.

Why the Government should be wasting money sending an historian and interpreter to Moscow to try to verify the authenticity or otherwise of the Zinoviev letter is a mystery. Our taxes could be spent more wisely.

PETER MOYES

Brightlingsea, Essex