Even his own Tory MPs don’t see any future in Rishi Sunak’s election offerings

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

It looks as if it is going to be a long, slow car crash of a Tory election campaign (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Conservative manifesto as presented by Rishi Sunak appears to be relying on the British public having a case of mass amnesia. It wants us to forget all the carnage caused to date by this government and to treat this set of election promises as our country’s salvation from the Labour Party.

Does Rishi Sunak really believe we are all gullible enough to forget all the Tory party’s disasters over the last 14 years? Or that we are ready to write them off because they were overseen by his predecessors? With all the glaring evidence of failure, how can he deliver a bright, shiny, future?

In the mix already is 14 years of austerity, economic mismanagement, campaign lies, culture wars and of course the eye-watering cost of a mad scheme to send desperate refugees to Rwanda. Now there is the promise of highly expensive tax cuts (seemingly to be financed by robbing the welfare system), paired with a disastrous election campaign, and the sight of tumbleweed blowing through the empty corridors of Westminster, vacated by an unprecedented number of Tory MPs throwing in the towel. If even they don’t see any future in Sunak’s offering, what is left that has any chance of persuading the rest of us to vote for more of the same?

It looks as if it is going to be a long, slow car crash of a Tory election campaign. Hopefully, on 5 July, we will finally be rid of this mess.

Kate Hall

Leeds

Flaw in the theory

Headline-grabbing as it may be, “wealth creation” is the star of Labour’s manifesto, sans any real shake-up of a tax system that has benefitted the wealthiest in society for decades now.

Such a statement can only bring anyone with a modicum of working critical faculty to one conclusion and one conclusion only regarding Kier Starmer: like Liz Truss, the Labour leader believes in the oft-debunked theory of trickle-down economics.

Is this what Britain is ousting the Tories for?

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Implications of an ageing society must not be ignored

The Conservative manifesto commitment to encourage the building of housing for older people is good to see, but frankly: detail is needed on how they’d do it. Labour’s promise to reform planning rules to build 1.5 million more homes is also positive, but there is a risk that focusing directly on young people does nothing to support older generations who want to move – and which could free up family-sized homes to benefit all generations.

In the last 40 years, the number of people aged 65 and over has increased by more than 3.5 million. Our ageing society means we need a national strategy on housing for older people, integrated within wider health and social care policies.

Increasing supply is important but not the only way to bring about improvements to the housing and living conditions of older people. Older people should have access to independent information, advice and advocacy around housing and care options in later life as well as the right to access practical, affordable housing repair and adaptation services.

With politicians being rightly grilled over how to fund expensive election promises, not all housing solutions have to come with a hefty price tag. For example, the government could implement, without delay, the existing commitment to increase the accessibility standards of new homes.

A lack of money is one thing, a lack of political will is quite another – and it’s frankly shocking that the implications of our ageing society do not get debated more by politicians. The next government must deliver for the older people of today and tomorrow.

Mario Ambrosi

London

Now or never

Sean O’Grady’s informative article on the silence regarding Brexit during the run-up to the election, only adds to my unease for the future.

Understandably, neither of the main parties wants to rock their particular boat of voters, but there is a much more important reason to discuss a return to the union. The country is in a parlous state due, mainly, to leaving the EU, coupled with the mismanagement of the country by the Tories. It feels as though Britain is slowly sinking into the abyss.

We were supposed to have gained £350m per week from leaving the EU, where has that money gone? Instead, we have a humongous national debt which is likely to remain with us for a generation. But at least we have our sovereignty back!

Where are the trading partners that we were told to expect? We gave up the largest trading group in the world and gained a continuation agreement with the Faroe Islands worth £200,000 of fish per year.

If, as seems likely, Labour form the next government, urgent discussion with the EU is needed to establish what options, if any, are available to Britain. While we may have to bite the bullet on certain factors related to rejoining the trading bloc, nevertheless, we must start the process before our way back into the EU may be much more difficult.

The incoming Labour government will have a most difficult time unravelling the chaos that the Tories managed to develop over 14 years and another referendum is the last thing that they need to think about. However, it seems that the failure of Brexit to improve our living standards has caused an upsurge in returning to the EU.

Perhaps in the first term of government Starmer will have time to consider the challenge.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Salutary advice for the Tories

Have Sunak and the Tories sunk so low in this general election campaign that they expect the British public to accept defence secretary Grant Shapps’s warnings about the consequences of Labour winning with a “supermajority”?

This sort of scaremongering is one of the oldest and most disreputable tactics employed by the Tories to deter voters from choosing a progressive change of direction. The inference is that a large left-wing parliamentary majority cannot be trusted with Britain’s defences or the management of its economy.

Yet it was a large right-wing parliamentary majority elected in 2019 that delivered a disastrous hard Brexit, dismantled much of our defence infrastructure, brought the NHS to its knees, trashed our economic prospects and living standards and treated the British public with such utter contempt during “Partygate”.

Lord Acton said “absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and this is salutary advice Tories should heed.

Paul Dolan

Cheshire