SIR - When Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979, I was a married man aged 35 with a child just at school.

Before I was 40, I took redundancy and signed on the 'dole' - £28 a week then!

Today, aged 80, and a grandfather of two, I believe that Labour today is 10 times more anti-working class than Mrs Thatcher ever was.

The Budget! Draconian tax rises on businesses? These will put not only pay rises at risk, but jobs also.

The so-called economic expansion is just a fantasy in our de-industrialised society, which is hampered by high taxes, high energy costs, plus the nightmare of net zero carbon.

Our Labour Party victimises the OAP over and over again, eg by means-testing of the winter fuel allowance.

But no criteria like that applied to the Chancellor, who enjoys several different homes; at Downing Street and Dorneywood plus Rachel Reeves's own home.

To think we once laughed at and scorned deputy prime minister John Prescott for having two Jaguar cars.

Labour today? Greedy closet capitalists all!

Also, the inflation-busting pay rises for junior doctors (22 per cent) and train drivers (15 per cent), plus Home Office staff (nine per cent), and even the minimum wage up by 6.7 per cent. OAPs get 4.1 per cent only, and that's subject to tax.

From 2010, my wife and I became gradually better off in retirement under the Conservatives, but today under Labour are going backwards financially.

DS Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds