Mel Stride is the Conservative MP for Central Devon, and a former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Watching this newly-installed Labour Government over the last two months has been an odd experience. It is simultaneously infuriating and comforting.
It infuriates me to see them reverting to socialist type, thinking the way to fix anything that isn’t working is to nationalise it, throw money at it, or regulate it.
And that anger is compounded by the promises they made to the public at the election: promises we repeatedly said they had neither the ability nor the inclination to deliver on, and which they took no time to go back on – and blame it all on us.
It’s hard to watch, not just as a Conservative, but as a patriot – I cannot bear to think what state our country could be in after five years of this.
At the same time, however, I draw some comfort from it. Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t have a clue how to run the country, and is quickly finding that government is not as easy as it looks. He faces all the same problems we did and has no idea how to solve them. The public can see that; the Starmer era really could be a flash in the pan.
But it is down to us Conservatives to make sure of it. We cannot spend the next few years soul-searching in the wilderness. We owe it to the country we love to get back on our feet, and deliver the change that is needed to turn this Labour majority on its head next time around.
To achieve that, we need real, experienced leadership. That is what the current leadership contest has to be about.
I came into Parliament in my late 40s, having successfully built my own businesses here and in the United States – putting teams together and bringing ideas to fruition. I have real-world experience, know how to build teams and deliver, and can bring the whole of the Party together around a positive conservative vision for the future, rooted in our shared values.
I have set out some of the ways we could start to do that. We have a mountain to climb when it comes to winning back the public’s trust on immigration. That will require honesty about the promises we failed to keep, and clear commitments to how we would fix it and will hold the new government to account on it.
That could involve a hard cap on numbers, below the 100,000 mark and probably well below it, and including within that a ‘housing lock’ which says we cannot continue to let migration levels outpace housing supply and drive up prices for young people.
My time at Work and Pensions convinced me that we also need to completely rethink our economic model so that we stop relying on labour from abroad. Employers need to be investing in skills and training for talent here in the UK, not always pulling the migration lever – and we can look at things like tax incentives to help them make those better choices.
We need to get taxes down. But that also means doing the hard yards on the ways you pay for that.
It was my welfare reforms which were allowing us to save £12bn in our manifesto and promise further tax cuts. A huge part of the reason Labour are looking at tax rises is they have turned a complete blind eye to welfare reform, happily writing off millions of people to a life on benefits and letting the bill continue to spiral. We should be constantly holding them to account on that.
I am particularly concerned about our Party’s performance among younger age groups. The average age of a Conservative voter at the election was 63 – that is simply unsustainable for our movement.
We need to show younger people how our conservative values can benefit aspirational people who want to work hard and build a family. One idea I have floated is a targeted tax cut when you start your first job, putting money in an ISA to go towards a deposit for a house.
It is very clear after last week’s result that there is all to play for in this leadership contest. Just a single vote could make the difference.
Once we are down to the final four candidates, we go forward to Party Conference where everything can change. It was at Conference that David Cameron emerged as the fresh new leader to lead us back into government, having been at 25/1 with the bookies just a week before.
Colleagues in Parliament know that I was out there fighting for every last vote at the general election, doing every interview and media round I possibly could, to get our message out and defend their seats. When things looked bleak, I had their backs. And I always will.
The Party is at a crossroads. I have what it takes to rebuild trust and competence. This Labour Government is eminently beatable – if we get it right.
Mel Stride is the Conservative MP for Central Devon, and a former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Watching this newly-installed Labour Government over the last two months has been an odd experience. It is simultaneously infuriating and comforting.
It infuriates me to see them reverting to socialist type, thinking the way to fix anything that isn’t working is to nationalise it, throw money at it, or regulate it.
And that anger is compounded by the promises they made to the public at the election: promises we repeatedly said they had neither the ability nor the inclination to deliver on, and which they took no time to go back on – and blame it all on us.
It’s hard to watch, not just as a Conservative, but as a patriot – I cannot bear to think what state our country could be in after five years of this.
At the same time, however, I draw some comfort from it. Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t have a clue how to run the country, and is quickly finding that government is not as easy as it looks. He faces all the same problems we did and has no idea how to solve them. The public can see that; the Starmer era really could be a flash in the pan.
But it is down to us Conservatives to make sure of it. We cannot spend the next few years soul-searching in the wilderness. We owe it to the country we love to get back on our feet, and deliver the change that is needed to turn this Labour majority on its head next time around.
To achieve that, we need real, experienced leadership. That is what the current leadership contest has to be about.
I came into Parliament in my late 40s, having successfully built my own businesses here and in the United States – putting teams together and bringing ideas to fruition. I have real-world experience, know how to build teams and deliver, and can bring the whole of the Party together around a positive conservative vision for the future, rooted in our shared values.
I have set out some of the ways we could start to do that. We have a mountain to climb when it comes to winning back the public’s trust on immigration. That will require honesty about the promises we failed to keep, and clear commitments to how we would fix it and will hold the new government to account on it.
That could involve a hard cap on numbers, below the 100,000 mark and probably well below it, and including within that a ‘housing lock’ which says we cannot continue to let migration levels outpace housing supply and drive up prices for young people.
My time at Work and Pensions convinced me that we also need to completely rethink our economic model so that we stop relying on labour from abroad. Employers need to be investing in skills and training for talent here in the UK, not always pulling the migration lever – and we can look at things like tax incentives to help them make those better choices.
We need to get taxes down. But that also means doing the hard yards on the ways you pay for that.
It was my welfare reforms which were allowing us to save £12bn in our manifesto and promise further tax cuts. A huge part of the reason Labour are looking at tax rises is they have turned a complete blind eye to welfare reform, happily writing off millions of people to a life on benefits and letting the bill continue to spiral. We should be constantly holding them to account on that.
I am particularly concerned about our Party’s performance among younger age groups. The average age of a Conservative voter at the election was 63 – that is simply unsustainable for our movement.
We need to show younger people how our conservative values can benefit aspirational people who want to work hard and build a family. One idea I have floated is a targeted tax cut when you start your first job, putting money in an ISA to go towards a deposit for a house.
It is very clear after last week’s result that there is all to play for in this leadership contest. Just a single vote could make the difference.
Once we are down to the final four candidates, we go forward to Party Conference where everything can change. It was at Conference that David Cameron emerged as the fresh new leader to lead us back into government, having been at 25/1 with the bookies just a week before.
Colleagues in Parliament know that I was out there fighting for every last vote at the general election, doing every interview and media round I possibly could, to get our message out and defend their seats. When things looked bleak, I had their backs. And I always will.
The Party is at a crossroads. I have what it takes to rebuild trust and competence. This Labour Government is eminently beatable – if we get it right.