Lincoln Conservative Association

Labour will kill the recovery with their tax on working people – so we’ll cut Labour waste to stop it.   7 out of 10 working people will be better off with the Conservatives than under Labour.

Yesterday morning, our plans to stop Labour’s tax on jobs were backed by the leaders of some of Britain’s largest companies – such as Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Next – which, between them, employ over 500,000 people. But instead of listening to Britain’s leading employers, Labour’s response was to attack them.

By the afternoon, another fourteen company leaders had added their names to the list, including Richard Caring, a former Labour donor; Ron Dennis, of the Formula One team McLaren; Simon Fox, the chief executive of HMV; and Brent Hoberman, who is a member of Gordon Brown’s own Business Council.

They were then followed by the leaders of Britain’s business organisations:

• David Frost, Director General, British Chambers of Commerce
• Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium
• John Cridland, Deputy Director General, Confederation of British Industry
• Phil Orford, Chief Executive, Forum of Private Business
• John Walker, National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses
• Miles Templeman, Director General, Institute of Directors
• Kevin Green, Chief Executive, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation

As every day passes, it becomes more and more clear that Labour’s tax on jobs will kill the recovery. Putting up National Insurance will cost 57,000 jobs in small firms alone, according to leading business experts.   Alastair Darling says that is ‘manageable’. It all shows why we can’t afford five more years of Labour.

Yesterday was a highly significant day in the debate about the British economy when the business community has come together to reject Labour’s tax on jobs.  Rebuilding the economy cannot be done by Government alone. It’s going to involve working with businesses big and small to create the jobs that so many Britons desperately need.  Gordon Brown now finds himself increasingly at war with British business – he is part of the problem, not the solution.

The choice at this election is clear: five more years of Gordon Brown, and his tax on jobs that threatens the recovery; and David Cameron and the Conservatives, who will stop the tax on jobs and get Britain working by boosting enterprise.

Labour will kill the recovery with their tax on working people – so we’ll cut Labour waste to stop it.   7 out of 10 working people will be better off with the Conservatives than under Labour.

Our plans to stop Labour’s tax hike have been backed by the leaders of some of Britain’s largest companies – such as Sainsburys, Marks and Spencer and Next – which, between them, employ over 500,000 people.

As every day passes, it becomes more and more clear that Labour’s tax on working people will kill the recovery. Putting up National Insurance will cost 57,000 jobs in small firms alone, according to leading business experts.   Alastair Darling says that is ‘manageable’. It all shows why we can’t afford five more years of Labour.

This is the text of the letter published in today’s Daily Telegraph:

“SIR – Between us we run some of Britain’s largest companies and employ over half a million people. We are responsible for ensuring that our businesses and our employees come through the recession in good shape.

“The Government’s proposal to increase national insurance, placing an additional tax on jobs, comes at exactly the wrong time in the economic cycle. In a personal capacity, we welcome George Osborne’s plan to stop the proposed increase in national insurance by cutting Government waste. In the last two years, businesses across the country have cut their costs without undermining the service they provide to their customers. It is time for the Government to do the same.

Few would argue that the state cannot improve. In the last few years, the private sector has improved its productivity by around 20 per cent, while productivity in the public sector has fallen by three per cent. Savings can be made by removing the blizzard of irrelevant objectives, restrictive working practices, arcane procurement rules and Whitehall interference. Mr Osborne’s announcement marks the beginning of this debate. As taxpayers we would welcome more efficiency in government.

“As businessmen we know that stopping the national insurance rise will protect jobs and support the recovery.

“Cutting government waste won’t endanger the recovery – but putting up national insurance will.”

Sir Anthony Bamford – Chairman, JCB
Bill Bolsover – Chief Executive, Aggregate Industries
Dominic Burke – Chief Executive, Jardine Lloyd Thompson
Ian Cheshire – Chief Executive, Kingfisher plc
Neil Clifford – Chief Executive, Kurt Geiger
Mick Davis – Chief Executive, Xstrata plc
Aidan Heavey – Chief Executive, Tullow Oil plc
Lord Harris of Peckham – Chairman and Chief Executive, Carpetright plc
Justin King – Chief Executive, J Sainsbury plc
Sir Christopher Gent – Chairman, GlaxoSmithKline plc
Ben Gordon – Chief Executive, Mothercare plc
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou – Founder and Chairman, easyGroup
John Lovering – Chairman, Mitchells & Butlers plc
Graham Mackay – Chief Executive, SABMiller plc
Alistair McGeorge – Chief Executive, Matalan
Nicolas Moreau – Group Chief Executive, AXA UK
Stephen Murphy – Chief Executive, Virgin Group Ltd
Alan Parker – Chief Executive, Whitbread Plc
Sir Stuart Rose – Executive Chairman, Marks & Spencer plc
Paul Walsh – Chief Executive, Diageo Plc
Joseph Wan – Group Chief Executive, Harvey Nichols
Simon Wolfson – Chief Executive, Next plc
Zameer Choudrey – Chief Executive, Bestway Cash & Carry

Today, we’re focusing on the other major issue that will be on the ballot paper at the election: our broken society.

The result of 13 years of Labour’s approach is plain to see: family breakdown, poverty, inequality, crime and welfare dependency. Five more years of Gordon Brown won’t change anything.  We’ll still have the same debt, waste, taxes and welfare problems that are holding us back.

That’s why we need to build a Big Society – a society with much higher levels of personal, professional, civic and corporate responsibility; a society where people come together to solve problems and improve life for themselves and their communities; a society where the leading force for progress is social responsibility, not state control.

We are announcing a series of proposals to make this a reality:

• A new ‘neighbourhood army’ of 5,000 full-time community organisers with the skills to identify local community leaders, bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems.
• A Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets, which will bring in private sector investment to provide hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.
• Transforming the civil service into a ‘civic service’ by making regular community service a key element in civil servant staff appraisals.

Read the BBC’s Article about this by following this link.

Not pensioners. The biggest stealth tax in Labour’s empty Budget – the freezing of income tax allowances – will hit pensioners hardest of all. The basic state pension is going up by less than inflation – a real terms cut of more than 1 per cent. Together, this means that many single pensioners will be more than £110 worse off. And that’s even before the £25 increase in an average band D council tax bill. Who’d have thought that this would happen under a Labour Government? So much for Labour’s pledge to help the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

Then there are the strikes. First British Airways, now the railways. Gordon Brown’s party is being bankrolled by the strikers’ cash. Passengers facing chaos and cancelled holidays will justifiably ask “whose side is the Prime Minister on?”

Finally there’s the NHS – our priority. Yes, Gordon Brown has spent more on it – but look what’s happened. New official figures published in the last week showed that the number of NHS managers increased more than FIVE TIMES as fast as the number of nurses. What does that show about Gordon Brown’s priorities? Whose side is he on – patients or bureaucrats?

That’s why it’s a clear choice at the election. Five more years of Gordon Brown, with the same debt, waste and taxes that got us into this economic mess. Or David Cameron and the Conservatives who offer you energy, leadership and new ideas to build an economy that grows – and an economy that works for everyone.

The seat of Lincoln has been, and probably always will be, a key seat for any political party to win.

Lincoln is therefore an important seat for the Conservatives, and our General Election result here in the City will be keenly awaited by leaders of all parties on election night.  Lincoln is not an easy seat to win, and the people of Lincoln have told me that they need to be convinced that their next MP will be not only one they can trust, but one will also always Put Lincoln First.

There are some key issues that I believe will be important to the people of Lincoln at the next election:

• feeling secure in your own home or when out and about in the City is important to many people I have met so we need to ensure that the Police are given the support they need to enable them to be where we need them most when we need them most
• health issues have also been raised with me a number of times and the fact that this Government seems to loom from one disaster to the next does nothing to increase the public’s confidence in our NHS system.  Again all medical staff from all levels within the NHS need to be listened to, and their common sense ideas acted upon
• our City’s transport system also needs to be inproved, not only to enable Lincoln to continue to thrive and to become an even greater City, but to also keep it moving in its current position and not be brought to a standstill every morning, evening and Saturday due to malfunctioning equipment or bad planning in the past.

The Labour Party seem to have lost touch with local people in Lincoln and there is now a real desire for change.  I hope to be that change in Lincoln, by working hard to create a more transparent form of politics that focuses on improving the quality of life of local people and tackles the issues that affect them on a daily basis.  I am delighted with the support I am receiving on the doorstep across the City and the other areas that form the Westminster Constituency, but recognise the fact that the fate of the Constituency of Lincoln will not be decided until the people of Lincoln go and vote in the General Election, whenever this Government decide to call it.