Our readers continue to air their views on the first two months of the new Labour Government – and by and large the reaction has been hostile.

Today one of our correspondents argues that Keir Starmer “has betrayed what his party used to stand for”.

Riccardo Robecchi of Glasgow writes:

"Anas Sarwar said it clearly: 'Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.' He couldn’t have been clearer if he tried on his promise. And yet, as some did indeed expect, Keir Starmer has seemingly once again proven his Scottish lieutenant wrong by announcing a Budget that will be 'painful', and that will see benefits cut, taxes rise and services reduced. And Scotland will be hit harder than the rest of the country, merely due to geography: it is colder up here than it is in England, which entails higher energy bills, in turn meaning that people have less usable income.

Leaving aside the tedious reality we face to concentrate on a more philosophical point, Sir Keir Starmer promised change: his whole proposition was that things would change after 14 years of Tory rule, 14 years of failed austerity that has left us all poorer, with worse services and a crumbling infrastructure. The Tories left the country in tatters, but Sir Keir’s solution to this seems to be to use the same approach.

I have spoken to lots of people who told me: 'Starmer is pandering to the right-wing tabloids just to win the elections, he’ll shift to the left once he’s won'. The problem, as I always replied would happen, is that he isn’t. He’s following the same recipe as the Tories, and the problem is that you can’t expect to get a chocolate cake if you’re using ingredients to make fish and chips. Austerity has never worked and it never will. Most importantly, it hits the poorest, the most vulnerable, and those with a normal (in the statistical sense of 'average') income the most. The impact is disproportionately felt in the lower part of society, which incidentally is also the largest chunk of it after the Tory rule.

Just as there are those who staunchly defend homeopathy, swearing on its good effects despite there being clear evidence that it doesn’t do anything (while being actively damaging as an imaginary cure for very real illnesses), Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seem to support more austerity to cure the ills of austerity. The same applies to Brexit: the PM seems convinced that more Brexit will cure the negative effects of Brexit. And just like in the case of homeopathy, it simply won’t work.

What the UK needs is real change. It needs someone to finally step up to represent the interests of the common people who struggle to make ends meet. It needs a force that won’t craft new rules to protect workers by consulting with businesses rather than with unions. It needs a force to undo 40 years of damage done by wrong privatisations and concentration of power and wealth into few hands. Keir Starmer has betrayed what his party used to stand for, and he has betrayed Scotland (again) by not listening to its people and to its yearning for change."