By Richard Holden

THERE is a lot at stake this year. Yes, for our politics, but what’s really at stake is the future of our country.

I have no illusions. We all know the odds, we have all seen the polls.

The Conservative party has never rolled over and surrendered – and we owe it to the British people who put their trust in us to deliver on the things that matter to them.

Because, the truth is, however others try to spin it, the next election is between having Sir Keir Starmer or Rishi Sunak as our Prime Minister and every vote, in every seat, matters.

When Labour left office, our country was on its knees – with £1 in every £4 being borrowed – and an infamous letter confirmed our worst fear. There was “no money left”. At least Labour found it amusing.

We have worked hard to turn that around and despite the global challenges of Covid-19 and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the knock-on cost-of-living impact, due to the sensible decisions we’ve taken Britain is turning a corner.

In our time in office, we’ve had the third-highest growth rate in the G7.

We saved 10 million jobs during the pandemic.

We introduced, and protected, the triple lock for pensions, standing by those who’ve worked hard all their lives. And because we stuck to our plan of responsible spending, we’ve now more than halved inflation.

That means we can cut the unfair double tax for 29 million people, rewarding hard work across the country. This tax cut will put £900 back in the pockets of the average worker – every year – something that will really make a difference to people’s pay packets.

Some 90 per cent of our schools are now good or outstanding, we’ve cut crime and we’ve delivered the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. And we got Brexit done.

We’ve made huge progress but we acknowledge there is a lot more still to do. Our Prime Minister has a plan to build on our good record in government and build a brighter future for our great nation.