A mother whose only daughter drowned in a dyke has reacted furiously to Boris Johnson's comment he would rather die in a ditch than delay Brexit.
The beleagured Prime Minister made the comment yesterday, after his own brother Jo resigned from the government and from parliament in protest at his leadership.
Acknowledging a difference of opinions with his pro-EU younger sibling, said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than go to Brussels to ask for a further delay.
But Lynn Walker, whose nine-year-old daughter Charlotte died after her mother's car plunged into the Sixteen Foot Drain near March, Cambs, in February 2008, has called Mr Johnson's comments "offensive".
Today she said: "He just opens his mouth and spouts garbage before he engages any thought process. He does it constantly."
In an e-mail to the PM she says: "I take huge offense at your ridiculous comment that you would rather die in a ditch than delay Brexit.
"My nine-year-old daughter died in a Fenland waterway in 2008, a waterway that was unimaginatively and inaccurately called a ditch in some reporting.
"You really need to think before you speak on so many levels." Account Ms Walker, now 55, of Manea, near Welney, was helped ashore by passing motorists after her Citroen Picasso went into the river near Bedlam Bridge.
But Charlotte was trapped in the car. Police and firefighters waded into the freezing water to free her, but she later died in hospital. Her death sparked a campaign for safety barriers to be installed in roads which run alongside drains called Charlotte's Way.
In 2012, Cambridgeshire County Council spent £85,000 on safety improvements on the stretch where Charlotte died.
In her e-mail to Mr Johnson, Ms Walker also lambasts his stance on Brexit.
She adds: "Yes Brexit is a complete mess, but intentionally hurtling headlong into a ditch is surely a ridiculous stance to be taking.
"It takes more courage to admit when something is wrong than to blindly forge ahead whatever the consequences.
"Pause, take a breath and really think what you are doing in your own heart.
"You are being badly guided by people who will be nowhere in sight when we all pay the consequences." Mr Johnson's office has been approached for comment on the e-mail.
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