Vote for a workers’ MP on a worker’s wage

Melanie Dent, Reading Socialist Party

Rishi Sunak was asked for an example of something he went without as a child. He said Sky TV, something his parents didn’t have so they could send him to private school!

Sunak is one of the wealthiest prime ministers in recent history. I am five years older than Sunak and, as I’m someone that has faced the brunt of 14 years of Tory rule, I still don’t have it.

Because of the Tories, many people are being forced to make uncomfortable choices between heating their homes or having a hot meal.

Sunak the ex-banker

It is highly unlikely that Sunak has even the slightest implication of what true hardship actually is; before he was an MP he was a stockbroker, gambling on the financial markets, and his wife is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The ‘having to do without’ that the rest of us are struggling with is not our fault – it’s the capitalist system that Sunak defends which sees wealth hoarded by a few and rampant cronyism.

The Tory government which, among other things, implemented Universal Credit and ramped up benefit sanctions has the blood of thousands on their hands as a result.

Put simply, Sunak and his cronies are out of touch with working-class reality. And Starmer’s Labour defends the same system as the Tories. That’s why 40 people are standing under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition banner on 4 July. They are standing to be workers’ MPs and taking a worker’s wage, which means that they have the concept of real life in the real world for the workers they would represent. I will be fortunate enough to be able to vote for a TUSC candidate here in Reading Central and encourage others to do the same if you can.