B EAST disparagingly suggests some silly labels for Jeremy Corbyn (HAS, April 28).

Mr Corbyn is no more a Marxist, a Trotskyist or a Communist than Nye Bevan or Clem Attlee. He is someone who believes in democratic socialism.

Labour’s proposals are straightforward and popular: a fair system of taxation; job creation by building genuinely affordable homes for young people to rent or buy and investing in manufacturing, new industries and infrastructure; taking the railways back into public ownership as private franchises expire; a foreign policy based on conflict resolution, human rights and justice; a properly funded national health and social care system, and adequate funding for state education.

A vote for Labour is a vote for a brighter future for Britain. A vote for any other party is a vote to give Theresa May a free hand to proceed with dismantling the welfare state, privatising the NHS, destroying state education, cutting taxes for the rich, and leaving the EU on her own terms, without meaningful Parliamentary scrutiny.

She has said: “The country is united, but Westminster isn’t.” Well, the country isn’t united, and Westminster shouldn’t be, because it is a place where all opinions should be heard and debated, and decisions made through consensus.

It is Theresa May, not Jeremy Corbyn who, in B East’s words, “believes in the state controlling our lives”.

Pete Winstanley, Durham