‘Boris has a clear vision for future’

THE recent political party conferences provided leaders with the opportunity to lay out their stalls to their assembled activists and press corps.

There could not have been a sharper contrast between the Prime Minister and Sir Keir Starmer.

The most important qualities of a good leader are the ability to communicate a vision, to inspire and do so with authenticity, and the skills to build a strong team to deliver that vision.

Even the most left-wing press acknowledged last week that the Prime Minister’s speech was a rousing, upbeat call to arms and authentic Boris, in that it entertained as well as informed the nation of the Government’s vision and the core values that underpin that vision.

This was not the moment to give detailed policy announcements as some have suggested but to reinforce the Government’s rolling programme, e.g., our Plan for Jobs, and transformational work in the NHS to address the backlog and social care challenge.

Sir Keir spoke for twice as long as Boris in his leader’s address and looked uncomfortable as he gave the same ‘my dad was a toolmaker’ line that featured in the video he made at Stoke-on-trent Sixth Form College.

The personality politics duel will never be won by someone who only seems required to relate to specific voters by sharing a personal story that appears – forgive the pun – laboured!

When Labour talk of ‘work as being the bedrock of our economy’, they are ideologically conflicted.

The Left of the party, which still shouts the loudest on the Opposition benches at Westminster, has a profound dislike of the private sector, whether supporting our brilliant NHS or creating the world’s first covid vaccines.

They talk of ‘cronyism’ or ‘sleaze’ if Government works with the city or private investors to secure opportunities that benefit communities up and down the country through providing higher wage, skilled jobs.

We should also not forget that the rollout of emergency business support packages would have been impossible without the cooperation of the banking sector.

It was probably to be expected that Keir would fail to outline a plan. It has been the hallmark of Her Majesty’s Opposition in this parliament that they have consistently supported spending more money on everyone during the pandemic, retaining furlough and the Universal Credit uplift (while agreeing that Labour would abolish Universal Credit – a massive lifeline to millions during the last year), raising the budgets, workforce and salaries of most public sector workers and raising taxes.

I have yet to hear how the private sector would flourish (or even survive) this remodelling.

‘Getting the job done’ and ‘Building back better’ were the messages at the Conservative Conference, set in the context of levelling up the country. The key features are:

Empowering local leaders and communities;

Growing the private sector and boosting living standards, particularly where they’re lower;

Spreading opportunity and improving public services, particularly where they’re lacking;

Restoring local pride.

In his promotional video, Sir Keir suggested Stoke-on-trent needed a plan that didn’t come from Westminster.

It appears he did not do his homework. Stoke-on-trent has a plan, a plan backed by three Members of Parliament and the city council, with the engagement and collaboration of education, health, business, community and voluntary sector partners, called the Stoke Prospectus.

It also has a Silicon Stoke prospectus which looks to the jobs of the future so that young people will not have to move out of the City to find their dream job.

I have battled with national journalists who run down our city by portraying it as nothing more than a post-industrial, left behind city with mass deprivation and unsafe streets.

This is reinforced when Sir Keir uses the comment in his speech, ‘… the young women I met recently in Stoke who told me they dare not go to their local high street alone’. In the wake of the horrific murder of Sarah Everard, I suspect he might have elicited that comment from young women in other towns and cities. What is merely a soundbite for him to call for more police is massively damaging to the image of our city and the growth of the night-time economy as well as the future prosperity of our high streets. The Government has already invested two million pounds of Safer Streets funding to improve the city with more CCTV, lighting and so on.

No one underestimates the many challenges we face in Stoke-ontrent after decades of neglect.

We must address the city’s infrastructure issues and social challenges.

No one will fight harder than me for support for our communities, create opportunities for our young people, champion the growth of our industries, and secure investment in new industries that will enable us to grow future generations to prosper.

Having a plan and working to deliver it is better than the negativity of opposition.