Esther McVey:
Hard-working voters are relying on the next leader to take us out of the EU and transform our country
The Conservative Party needs to become a natural home for voters in hard-working communities who have been abandoned by Jeremy Corbyn’s divisive Labour Party. If we are to win again we have to deliver for our people in the North, the Midlands and the regions, and we need a leader who can reach out to them.
In 2016, 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union – not because they wanted us to pursue an isolationist future, but because they were filled with hope; hope and optimism that, free from the backward-looking and undemocratic institution that is the EU, the UK would be able to thrive by controlling its own destiny.
They wanted us to bring back some basic forms of governance that the
majority of countries around the world enjoy: an ability to control our own immigration rules, to choose how we spend our own taxpayers’ money, to have our courts determine how our laws are applied and to be able to agree trade deals with the fastest-growing economies in the world.
But the referendum result gave us an opportunity to do something even greater: to bring back trust to our politics.
Brexit was our chance to restore faith in our democracy. More people voted for Brexit than have voted for anything in our history – and yet the political class has casually tossed the result aside. They believe that they know better than the people they are here to serve and have spent their every waking hour frustrating the outcome of the referendum and tying Brexit up in knots. If we don’t leave the EU swiftly and decisively, the next few months will form the last chapter in the history of the Conservative Party.
I have been travelling all around the country as part of my new initiative, Blue Collar Conservatism. It is about hearing what the concerns of everyday voters are and developing solutions that will make a real, practical difference to their families’ lives. And they’ve all been saying the same thing: get on with Brexit and then invest money in our public services.
Nobody is in any doubt that the Conservative Party has transformed the economy since 2010. The lowest paid are paying less in tax, employment levels are at their highest since the Seventies and our economy is growing.
But as we all knock on doors and listen to voters, it is clear that people don’t feel that we are delivering for them. So throughout the leadership election I have been making the case for putting more money into schooling, policing and for providing a public sector pay guarantee.
Our brave policemen and women desperately want to keep our communities safe and to stem the rise in violent crime – they just don’t have the resources they need to do it. They need transformative help if they are to turn the police force into an outfit that is fit for the 21st century.
We’ve got to mend relations with teachers and make them our partners in delivering a world-class education for our children. That’s why I am calling for an additional £4 billion for our education budget.
And as our public servants have worked so hard to help us eliminate Labour’s deficit and strengthen our economy, I am campaigning to give them a pay rise and to treat them with the respect they deserve, so that they can continue providing the services for which we are all so grateful.
These are the policies we need if we are to win back the voters we lost in droves at the EU elections.
That’s why I am delighted that Boris Johnson has today committed to this Blue Collar Conservatism agenda. I will wholeheartedly support him in his bid to become the leader of our great party and country, and I look forward to working with him to deliver for Blue Collar Conservatives all over the country.
He has promised to deliver Brexit on October 31, deal or no deal, and has shown time and time again that he is a dynamic leader, capable of building a strong team around him that will deliver on his promises.
Our country is crying out for strong, optimistic leadership and Boris is the man best equipped to take us out of the EU, to transform our country into an outward-looking, confident, self-governing nation, and to implement a policy agenda that will bring back the voters we have lost and ensure we don’t allow Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto of economic carnage to plunge us back into the dark ages.