PM is a puppet of the right-wing press

IN FORCING a humiliating U-turn on her Chancellor seven days after his budget, the PM has given a resounding answer to the question posed by one of her predecessors as to who governs Britain – and that answer is clearly the right-wing press.

We are now left with a £2bn hole in the Government’s plans to increase money for social care, which would alleviate pressure on hospitals and local government budgets. We need a radical overhaul of our tax system if we are to achieve a fairer, more equal society.

Surely it’s time to drop National Insurance contributions, which are increasingly avoided by unscrupulous employers who force their workers into bogus selfemployment, by increasing, rather than cutting, corporation tax.

Theresa May has not only wounded her Chancellor but also her own position as a PM, whose majority is less than the number of her right-wing, Brexiter backbenchers.

This majority of 13 is also less than the 20 Tory MPs who won their marginal seats through overspending, currently under investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service.

What price our democracy if billionaires can simultaneously fund Ukip and buy an election for the Tories who felt compelled to put an EU referendum in their manifesto to see off the Ukip threat?

If we have a democracy worthy of the name, this planned overspend of election expenses invalidates the general election result.

Margaret Phelps Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan