Zahawi, Sunak, Johnson: this is rule by plutocrat. It’s like a stench that’s worse each day | Polly Toynbee

The Tory chairman's 5m tax error' shows how the other half lives it up, and the murkiness of politics run by and for the super-rich

Let me tell you about the very rich," F Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. They are different from you and me ... Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are." For that reason they will always be an awkward fit in the world of democratic politics.

The past few days have provided ample reminders of what happens when the very rich take control. The stench emanating from this government reprises John Major's last days of sleaze". But the sums of money back then look paltry compared to the extraordinary finances of the multimillionaires who now fill the Tory benches.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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