West Dorset MP Chris Loder is a big supporter of Prime Minister Liz Truss whose close ally and Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget caused the pound to collapse, mortgage offers to be withdrawn and the Bank of England to take the decision to calm highly nervous bond markets and pension funds by spending £65 billion on government bonds.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour on Sunday evening, Mr Loder expressed no concern about the Kwarteng mini-budget with its cutting of the 45p tax rate on the very rich.

This, of course, was before Mr Kwarteng’s major U-turn early on Monday morning after he and Ms Truss became aware of a potential Commons rebellion by Conservative MPs not including, one assumes, Chris Loder.

Mr Loder had a majority of over fourteen thousand at the last election. Even so, with his party plummeting in the polls, he cannot now have total confidence in retaining his seat.

Last week in his Echo column he celebrated Dorset’s inclusion among the 38 investment zones chosen by the government to promote the growth that will supposedly trickle down from the very rich to the rest of us.

These zones will feature massive loosening of planning regulations, big tax breaks for property developers and other investors and weakening of protection for the environment. Rather than increase general investment, these zones are more likely merely to shift investment from elsewhere.

The public should ask the question, ‘Growth for whose benefit?’ It would be timely if our MP used his column to address the local community on why he supports policies which blatantly benefit only the very rich and which threaten to cut benefits and further weaken the NHS and other public services.

Peter Barton

Dorchester Road, Frampton