Red Wall voters ‘need to be shown Tory policies work’

RED Wall voters want Conservative policies not a Labour-lite agenda, Lord Frost will say today, as he warns Boris Johnson against just throwing money at the cost of living crisis.

In a speech to a conservative US think tank, the former Brexit negotiator will urge the Prime Minister to cut taxes for struggling families and slash red tape for businesses.

He will argue Northern voters, who switched to the Tories in 2019, were attracted by the party’s traditional economic message.

“We will grow our supporters in the Red Wall by showing that Conservative policies work, not by being embarrassed about them”, he will tell the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC.

“I hope we will not come to believe that those people who voted for us for the first time in 2019 are ‘really’ Labour voters and that only sub-labour hightax high-spend policies will satisfy them. That will force the party away from conservatism and our natural supporters, whether they are in the Blue or the Red Wall. The Red Wall is not different from the rest of the country.

“They want to be able to keep more of their own money, to be able to afford to turn their heating on, and to be allowed to say what they think and pursue their own hopes for their lives. That is what we need to deliver.”

Tory MPS representing rural constituencies have also warned Mr Johnson that large swathes of the countryside are “getting left behind” by his levelling up agenda.

Julian Sturdy, MP for York Outer, said “living costs rising and the way they impact on rural areas could be behind a lot of the Conservative discontent with government at the moment”.

“We cannot take rural areas for granted anymore and we really have to drill down on that,” he told a Conservative Home event.

“I don’t think we’ve got the messaging right over levelling up and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done on that. There’s a danger levelling up means taking away rather than giving, so some communities are going to lose money and lose services as it moves elsewhere.”

Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon, said levelling up has “been very much about bringing people into cities” and called for a greater “focus” on boosting market towns.

In an admission that the Government has failed to get its message across, Simon Hart, the Welsh Secretary, said much of the levelling up agenda “sounds as dull as hell”.