AS stories of hardship are flooding in daily and helplines to the Ministry of Work and Pensions are jammed, our Government is stubbornly pressing on with the contentious six week suspension of benefits as its Universal Credit is rolled out.

There was a Labour amendment in Parliament, carried unanimously to pause this part of the Bill so a fairer system can be found, but Theresa May and her cohorts blatantly ignored it.

By refusing to participate in the vote the Conservatives, at a stroke, destroyed our reputation as the most democratic nation on earth.

While the Chinese leader has revived Chairman Mao’s cult of personality, our own Chairman May is heading in the same direction and making no allowance for opposition.

No surprise then that the next roll out of Universal Credit, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, will be the poorest part of the North-East.

A timely Christmas present for those people who did not vote Tory at the last election.

As Scrooge might have said: “In the absence of workhouses, they still have the food banks.”

Maurice Baker, Spennymoor