If you believe Theresa May’s boast that the Tories are now the party of the Working Class then you will believe anything.

She made the claim at Last week’s Tory Conference in Birmingham in a keynote speech where she parked her party into the void left by Labour as it returned to the days of Michael Foot and the 1980s following their members ringing endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn at their conference the week before.

Theresa May was able to make a putt for the working class vote because of the total disarray and continued in fighting within Labour who are supposedly Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. Her keynote speech was full of warm words designed to win the hearts and minds of the working class. Warm words they might have been but when analysed they patronising and devoid of anything constructive.

If Theresa May and her band of Tories really wanted to help the working class she would stop throttling local government and the NHS. Instead she has flagged up more help for bosses whilst abandoning targets to end austerity. Instead of increasing income for Government through direct taxation she has signalled the continuation of cuts in local government funding and our hard pressed NHS.

Walsall Council like all other councils across the land are still faced with cuts in its funding of between ninety and one hundred million pounds over the next four years. At the same time Walsall NHS Trust is struggling to meet demand for hospital beds and the Clinical Commissioning Group which commissions health services in Walsall is being forced to cut £22million in year to balance its books.

All this shifts taxation away from Income Tax which is based on ability to pay. to Council Tax and the Social Care Precept which takes little or no account of ability to pay.

With Labour more concerned about its own problems there is a need for the centre left to re align itself. If it doesn’t then the Tories will still be in power ten, twenty years time.