I GET a lot of letters and emails in my mail bag. Last week I got one saying that I was completely out of touch with my constituents and I should be concentrating on the No. 2 bus on the Habberley Estate – busses are far more important than Brexit.

To a certain extent, she’s right. Local issues are the things that make a day to day difference to people’s lives. What she didn’t see, of course, is Brexit is more than half my mail bag. But everything is linked. The number of buses we have depends on the number of people using them and the amount of subsidy the county council can afford. If our economy tanks, we have less tax revenue to pay for all sorts of things, including bus subsidies. But on the other hand people will be worse off, less able to pay for cars and so more usage of buses. If the economy is successful, the reverse happens – more tax revenue, more cars so less bus usage, but more tax revenue to subsidise buses.

Brexit is an issue from which everything else depends. If we mess it up, uncertainty in the economy will restrict growth. A successful Brexit will drive improved growth. That is why this week’s inventions from the head of Jaguar Land Rover is so important. He claims that 40,000 jobs in the UK auto sector could be lost with a poor Brexit. I’ve met plenty of people who say that is a price worth paying to “take back control”, but none of their jobs are on the line.

The fifty or so colleagues of mine in the Conservative party, reported this week to have held a meeting about toppling the prime minister over her Chequers proposals, are playing a very dangerous game. I’m not about to come forward saying that Theresa May is the finest PM we’ve ever had, but I’m certainly not about to come forward and say that a leadership challenge is a good idea either. It is in everyone’s interest that we get a deal done with the EU that works for our economy. At this stage, it is the wealth creators whose voice is the most important. Because if they take away their investment, their jobs and their industry, we have nothing left to pay for what we hold dear. And that includes the No2 bus.