THERESA MAY

As she says she relies on it every day to help manage her diabetes, Mrs May makes a bold declaration

LAST week we presented a Budget for Britain’s future. It marked a major turning point in our politics. Since the financial crisis, the British people have worked hard to fix the damage caused by Labour’s great recession.

That hard work is now paying off. This Budget sets a clear course towards a brighter and more prosperous future for everyone in the United Kingdom. It shows that responsible Conservative management of the economy allows us to invest more in our vital public services while also cutting taxes – a win-win for working people.

Getting here has not been easy. The whole world faced a financial shock in 2007/ 2008. But the UK suffered more than most countries because of Labour’s economic mismanagement. Labour arrogantly claimed to have ‘abolished boom and bust’ – just as their failed regulation of the banks set us on the road to ruin.

As a result, our deficit soared to a post-war record, nearly three quarters of a million jobs were lost and Britain was on the brink. In eight years, that situation has been transformed and we are now at a turning point. Our debt has begun its first sustained fall for a generation and the difficult years of austerity are now coming to an end.

In the Budget we saw what that means for the British people.

At its heart was our absolute commitment to the public service that the British people value the most: our NHS. This is personal for me. Just like millions of people across our country, I rely on the NHS every day. The wonderful staff of my local NHS trust in Berkshire help me manage my diabetes so I can live a normal life and get on with doing my job.

As Prime Minister, I am determined to do what it takes to secure our NHS for the future so it is there for all of us.

That is why we made the largestever cash commitment to our public services by a peacetime government: an extra £394 million every single week. The NHS is the public’s priority – and it is my priority too.

However, si mply i ncreasing budgets without a proper plan to improve outcomes is not enough. That was Labour’s mistake. So, in return for our investment, the NHS is working on a new long-term plan to make sure that every penny makes a difference for patients.

That plan will be published shortly, but we can already see its first fruits. A new Cancer Strategy will save thousands of lives by prioritising early diagnosis. A new mental-health crisis service will provide expert support in schools and hospitals, so help is on hand when people need it.

Today, in the year of the NHS’s 70th birthday, we are securing its future with our record cash invest- ment and a long-term plan to drive up outcomes for patients. Labour went into the last Election offering to spend less on the NHS than the Government is investing now. In its 2017 manifesto, Labour offered 2.2 per cent more every year of this Parliament. Our new settlement provides substantially more – an average of 3.4 per cent over the next five years. Conservatives have cared for the NHS for most of its life and we are setting out a path for it to prosper for another 70 years and more.

It is clear that in British politics today, the Conservatives are now the natural party of the NHS.

And our Conservative commitment to the NHS means this extra funding is being met not by putting up taxes, but by managing our economy responsibly. Thanks to the hard work of the British people, the deficit is now a fraction of what it was under Labour and we are no longer borrowing anything at all to fund day-to-day spending.

In time, as our debt continues to fall, that will mean we pay less and less on debt interest, saving taxpayers’ money. Employment is at a near-record high and unemployment is at its lowest rate since the 1970s and that means we are spending less on benefits. Instead, as more people earn a wage, more businesses make a profit and more foreign investment comes into the UK, our tax receipts are higher, giving us more money to spend.

That means alongside more investment for our public services, we can also cut taxes for working people. At the Budget, alongside freezes in fuel, beer and spirit duties, we also brought forward an income tax cut for 32 million people, putting more money in the pockets of working families.

Astonishingly, Jeremy Corbyn refused to support these tax cuts. He and his party simply do not understand that the way to build a stronger economy that works for working people is by backing businesses to create more jobs, taking a responsible approach to public spending and keeping taxes low.

Proof of this is his plan for a £1,000 billion spending spree funded by higher taxes on working people and more borrowing. This would devastate our economy. Jobs would be lost, taxes and borrowing would rise, and public services would end up having to face new Labour cuts. After ten years of hard work, Britain would be back at square one.

Over the past decade, our focus was on dealing with the aftermath of the financial crisis. Over the next decade, our challenge must be to seize the opportunities of the future and ensure that everyone benefits. Because the Conservatives are not just a party to fix a mess, we are also a party to steer a course to a better future.

Leaving the European Union with a good deal, creating new jobs and getting the most out of new technology through our Modern Industrial Strategy, taking a responsible and balanced approach to our economy that keeps our national debt falling, our public services improving, people’s wages rising and their taxes low. That is the brighter future Conservatives offer the British people: a country that truly works for everyone.

This is personal for me – and it’s the public’s priority too Conservatives have cared for the NHS for most of its life