‘After the pits I worked for Labour ...but their policies had created what they were against: poverty!’

AS THE SON and grandson of coal miners I was brought up on a strict diet of Skinner, Scargill and Benn during the 1970s. I hated the Tories, as did all my mates.

We didn’t know why but we knew we could blame them for everything that went wrong.

History has always produced social scapegoats and what better scapegoats than the nasty Tories?

I was told to work hard at school, do my 11-plus and then go to grammar school, which meant I would not have to go down the pit with my dad. Two years before I was due to take the magical 11-plus, the grammar schools in our area were phased out by the Labour government.

So, a few years later I was down the pit with my dad, as were many other teenagers in Ashfield.

When we went to school we would pass all the collieries and factories knowing full well that a few years later many of us would be working there. Now I consider that an aspiration. To many it does not seem like much of one, but wanting to go to work and make your own way in life is nevertheless an aspiration.

Sadly many young people lack aspiration these days, through no fault of their own.

After my time in the pits I worked for the local Citizens

Advice Bureau in Ashfield and this was where my views started to change.

I remember seeing families who had the usual problems such as debt, housing, benefit problems and relationship issues. Fast forward 10 years and I was seeing the children of these families with the same problems. I genuinely thought the only way to solve these social issues was through the Labour

Party, so when I was offered a job with the local Labour MP, I jumped at the chance.

How wrong was I? It soon became apparent that Labour offered nothing other than more benefit dependency, subsidised low wages and lower social mobility. Their policies had created the very thing they always campaigned against: poverty!

Most working class people from places like Ashfield just want a decent job, a roof over their head, a car, a nice holiday once a year, decent schools and hospitals, and for their children to do a bit better in life than they have. If our children do better than us, that is progress.

The pits and factories have long gone so it is not always obvious to young people where their future lies.

This is where the Conservative Government can succeed in turning back the clock to make areas like Ashfield the beating heart of our country and not waste another generation of young people. How do we do it? We have already started with billions of pounds invested in infrastructure projects around the country. With these projects come thousands of jobs and apprenticeships so we need to make sure that we are producing young people who can leave school or college to go straight into these roles and help build and shape our country’s future.

I was not a fan of HS2, but already some of the local engineering firms in my area are gearing up by recruiting staff and apprentices as orders are starting to come in.

This is a major step to help eradicate poverty. Once our young people start to see their mates getting jobs on these exciting new projects leading to a good career, many will want to take the same path. You do not eradicate poverty by increasing benefits, but by increasing opportunities, which is what a Conservative government does.

No one really wants to spend a life on benefits but when it is difficult to see another way, it will always be the default position. We need to make sure that our young people can always see another way.

Prosperity will come from good education, training and well-paid, highly-skilled jobs.

Our Government’s levelling-up agenda will ensure this happens in places such as Ashfield.

I have been on a real political journey and I reflect on the days when I went to watch Dennis Skinner, Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn speak at miners’ rallies with great fondness. But I now realise that these men were not the solution.

They were part of the problem.