Yorkshire will have a Brexit dividend, says May
Former EU cash to tackle North-South divide PM makes bid for Labour territory at manifesto launch
THERESA MAY promised Yorkshire will enjoy a Brexit dividend as she made an audacious bid for traditional Labour territory with her Conservative manifesto launched in Halifax.
The highly personal document promised a Conservative election victory will trigger the creation of a new fund using money saved by leaving the European Union to tackle the North-South divide.
‘Forward Together’ also pledged action to tackle the gap in performance between schools in Yorkshire and other parts of the country, an issue repeatedly highlighted by former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw.
But Conservative candidates will face tough questions from Yorkshire voters over plans to make it easier for fracking firms to explore for gas, and there will be disappointment that a commitment to high-speed trans-Pennine rail services was not matched with a budget or a timetable for delivery.
The document saw Mrs May ditch a string of pledges inherited from her predecessor. She left the way open for income tax or national insurance to rise, only guaranteeing VAT will not increase. In a shift away from the protection given to older people from austerity measures, the triple-lock on pensions was replaced by a guarantee they will rise in line with earnings or inflation.
A promise to cap care costs was torn up in favour of a radical overhaul of the care system which will see more people having to meet the costs and wealthier pensioners losing their winter fuel payments. Free school meals for infants were also dropped – which the Liberal Democrats claimed would hit 98,000 Yorkshire children – but there was protection for budgets in schools that could lose out under proposed funding formula changes.
In the most interventionist Conservative manifesto seen in recent memory, there were promises to take action on energy bills, give workers stronger rights, new rules governing company takeovers and mergers and laws on executive pay.
Alongside Mrs May’s wellworn promise of “strong and stable leadership”, the Prime Minister said she wanted to turn the country into the “Great Meritocracy” as Britain leaves the EU.
With talks over Britain’s exit from the European Union looming, Mrs May admitted that “the next five years will be among the most challenging in our lifetime”.
She described Brexit as a moment “to step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to build together”.
In a direct appeal to Labour voters, she said: “It is time to put the old, tribal politics behind us and to come together in the
The next five years will be among the most challenging. Theresa May, speaking yesterday in Halifax.
national interest, united in our desire to make a success of Brexit.”
And in a fresh effort to portray Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour as a party of the hard-left, Mrs May staked her claim to the political centre-ground, promising her “mainstream government will deliver for mainstream Britain”.
There were noisy protestors outside the venue as people carrying banners from the Unite union protested against zero hours contracts and claimed the Conservatives wanted to take Britain back to the Victorian era.
Holly Lynch, who is defending the Halifax seat for Labour, said: “Where were the big names in the Conservative Party when we were trying to save our A&E or secure investment in our rail services?
“They washed their hands of the issues and argued they couldn’t step in to help. There was nothing strong or stable about cutting 1,200 police officers from West Yorkshire Police, stretching our force like never before, or closing the courts in Halifax, ending 140 years of justice provision in the town. I’ve always sought to work constructively with the Government to find solutions to the problems we’re dealing with in Halifax, but when they only show up at election time people see through their empty promises.”
HALIFAX MEETS a lot of the criteria you would expect those orchestrating the Conservative election effort would have applied as they looked for a location to launch the 2017 General Election manifesto.
Parties always want to ensure the place they choose conveys the right message to voters and the Conservatives will have considered that carefully in selecting the West Yorkshire town.
They would want a target seat, away from a major city to avoid accusations of metropolitan obsession and a venue that symbolised hope and regeneration.
Despite fitting all those descriptions, what made Halifax and Dean Clough Mills an intriguing choice was that it also drew attention to Conservative failure.
Halifax has almost always been the just-out-of-reach seat for the Conservatives despite their best efforts.
As 2015 dawned, David Cameron chose to unveil the Conservatives’ first campaign poster for the General Election that would follow in May at Dean Clough Mills.
But despite needing to overturn a majority of just 1,472 from 2010 and the Conservatives enjoying gains in seats across the country, an energetic campaign from Labour’s Holly Lynch saw off Conservative candidate Philip Allott, who fell 428 votes short.
Indeed, a look back at the history of the Halifax seat shows it has only been won by the Conservatives at two post-war elections, most recently the 1983 landslide election victory.
By launching her first General Election manifesto in Halifax, Mrs May sent a message that she intends to succeed where her predecessor and others before him failed.
And the Prime Minister set out her intention to further break with the past as she presented ‘Forward Together, Our Plan for a Stronger Britain and a Prosperous Future’.
The protection of older people from cuts, the defence of the market and the unalloyed championing of business were swept away in favour of means-testing of pensioner benefits, promises to protect consumers from market failures and tougher messages for company bosses on pay and corporate behaviour.
Mrs May denied that through her interventionist manifesto she was making a break with Thatcherism.
“Margaret Thatcher was a Conservative, I am a Conservative, this is a Conservative manifesto,” she said.
But it was hard to imagine her predecessor saying “while it is never true that government has all the answers, government – put squarely at the service of ordinary working people – can and should be a force for good”.
But there was one policy the Prime Minister refused to scrap.
Despite as Home Secretary consistently failing to deliver a reduction in immigration to “the tens of thousands”, the promise has survived the cull.
Reportedly opposed by many other members of the Cabinet, the inclusion of a target she has long stood by was the final piece of evidence that this was very much Mrs May’s manifesto.