Letter on new Centre party

Bernadette Horton rightly includes the adverb "unsurprisingly" when mentioning how the proposed new "centre" party "has Tory donors too" (Morning Star, 12/04/18).

The point of such a venture can only be to divide the Labour vote as happened in 1983, hand the Tories another five years of wielding their callous power, and blame the election defeat on a left-wing manifesto, to discourage the adoption of transformational policies. It certainly had that effect back then, with all that nonsense about the manifesto being the "longest suicide note in history".

     Despite moderate Labour being defeated in recent general elections, some millionaire donors, who have absolutely no connection or empathy with the millions of voters they need to support them, now think our most unfair and unequal society only requires minor changes. They are never going to back a party intent on ending tax avoidance, increasing the top levels of tax, or promising significant pay rises for teachers and carers.

    They will, as Horton says, have the support of so-called "moderates" in the Labour party, who hate the fact that Corbyn is the leader, but cannot understand that their feeble policies have lost two recent elections. If they cannot support Corbyn and his policies, they need to re-assess their political beliefs; if they do not want to transform our society and reduce inequality, they should not be signing up for a new party, they should be joining the Tories!