Nigel Huddleston is the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, and MP for Droitwich and Evesham
By the time 100 days rolled around for Keir Starmer, he had put the economy into reverse, was embroiled in a freebies scandal, had taken winter fuel payments off 10 million pensioners and his chief of staff Sue Gray had one foot out of Downing Street’s famous black door. His Chancellor was scrambling around for ideas to put into the budget because despite 14 years in opposition, they didn’t have a plan.
Unlike Keir Starmer, Kemi has a plan and in her first 100 days is already putting it into action.
We will use our time in opposition wisely.
Kemi takes her responsibility as leader of His Majesty’s Opposition incredibly seriously and she is holding Labour to account for a series of disastrous decisions and missteps. From day one, Kemi has held Labour’s feet to the fire. We have a duty to the British people to present ourselves as an alternative government.
To achieve this, Kemi has set out that we are under new leadership. We need to acknowledge why we lost the election, and we need to rebuild trust with the British people. This starts in the first 100 days, but it will be a long journey. It is a marathon, not a sprint as many of you will have heard Kemi say.
And we must be confident in our ambitions for our party and our Country. Our best days are ahead of us. Our policy commission work will be pivotal to developing the policy platform for the next election, but Kemi has already set out policies on immigration and we have made clear our opposition to many other Labour policies.
With each day we show we are on the side of hardworking people, businesses and the country.
We have not opposed for opposition’s sake. Because we want what is best for Britain. But this vindictive Labour government has so far been destructive to everything we hold dear, and we are not afraid to call it out. For example, the winter fuel payment that was cruelly taken from 10 million pensioners this winter. By the Government’s own admission, it will throw 100,000 pensioners into abject poverty and put pressure on social services and the NHS.
Continuing with their ideological war, Labour has introduced punishing changes to inheritance tax. In classic fashion, they have clearly not thought through the practicalities of this dogmatic policy. Whilst wanting to start a class crusade with the farmers who they hate and don’t understand, they have accidentally picked a fight with bereaved military families, who will have death in service payments taxed for the first time. They will also smash family businesses up and down the country, and some elderly business owners have talked about taking their own lives for the sake of the family business!
We are firmly against this unfairness.
Not only because of the moral, ethical and practical reasons. But also, because it won’t work. In her first 100 days, Kemi has taken her engineer’s mindset to these problems. It is chalk and cheese to Keir Starmer’s dogmatic approach. As well as being bad for the country, many of Labour’s supposed tax-raising initiatives won’t even raise the revenue for the Treasury that they were meant to deliver.
Much like changes to the death tax, the education tax will tax many independent schools into oblivion but not raise any money. And it will put pressure on state school places up and down the country for the privilege. Kemi has been clear: we will reverse it.
We have led the charge against a number of damaging measures, like the Unemployment Bill which is a looming disaster for businesses large and small. It’s set to crush the spirit of private enterprise, suppress salaries and cost jobs. We all knew Labour didn’t get business, but this is truly astonishing.
Kemi has also been at the forefront in other policy areas, pushing against the Chagos surrender, for example.
However, as well as opposing what the Government is doing, it’s important to make a positive case for the future. Because we want what’s best for the country, not petty party-political points. Despite Labour’s enormous Parliamentary majority, Kemi has forced u-turns and concessions from the Labour government by making a strong case for the alternative.
For example, we got Keir Starmer to amend his flagship Education Bill after Kemi rightly accused him of ‘pure educational vandalism’. We were on the side of school children and teachers whilst they were on the side of the unions. It’s no wonder they lost the argument.
Kemi called for a national enquiry on rape gangs. Whilst Keir Starmer hasn’t gone far enough in his response, we forced him to look again at his initial weak proposal which did nothing to help victims.
We have set out a robust approach to immigration, making the path to indefinite leave to remain a privilege rather than a right and we will implement a strict cap on immigration numbers.
More policies will come, but we cannot write the manifesto for four years’ time, now. We don’t know what state the country will be in after 5 years of Labour.
Much like Margaret Thatcher, whose 50th anniversary of becoming leader of the Conservative party is tomorrow, Kemi isn’t bowing to pressure to rush out policies which may not be relevant or workable in a world that is changing faster than ever. We have got to work on detailed plans, not empty make promises. If we want to achieve the transformation our country needs, we can’t tolerate quick fixes or easily broken pledges. We are not a party of protest; we are a party of government.
But much like Mrs Thatcher, Kemi knows that our policies must all be based on sound Conservative values and principles – which we know are also shared by the majority of the British public. This Labour government is governing in a way that is the absolute opposite of what it means to be a Conservative. They are falling in the opinion polls because they are out of touch with the instincts of the British public. We will continue to highlight this fact at every opportunity and hold them to account inside and outside the chamber of the House of Commons for their mistakes.
Renewing the Conservative Party will not be easy and cannot be rushed.
But Kemi’s first 100 days has shown a clear path that will work towards the goal we all have in common: evicting Labour from Downing Street and getting a Conservative government elected. It is not a job that Kemi or any of us take lightly.
Nigel Huddleston is the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, and MP for Droitwich and Evesham
By the time 100 days rolled around for Keir Starmer, he had put the economy into reverse, was embroiled in a freebies scandal, had taken winter fuel payments off 10 million pensioners and his chief of staff Sue Gray had one foot out of Downing Street’s famous black door. His Chancellor was scrambling around for ideas to put into the budget because despite 14 years in opposition, they didn’t have a plan.
Unlike Keir Starmer, Kemi has a plan and in her first 100 days is already putting it into action.
We will use our time in opposition wisely.
Kemi takes her responsibility as leader of His Majesty’s Opposition incredibly seriously and she is holding Labour to account for a series of disastrous decisions and missteps. From day one, Kemi has held Labour’s feet to the fire. We have a duty to the British people to present ourselves as an alternative government.
To achieve this, Kemi has set out that we are under new leadership. We need to acknowledge why we lost the election, and we need to rebuild trust with the British people. This starts in the first 100 days, but it will be a long journey. It is a marathon, not a sprint as many of you will have heard Kemi say.
And we must be confident in our ambitions for our party and our Country. Our best days are ahead of us. Our policy commission work will be pivotal to developing the policy platform for the next election, but Kemi has already set out policies on immigration and we have made clear our opposition to many other Labour policies.
With each day we show we are on the side of hardworking people, businesses and the country.
We have not opposed for opposition’s sake. Because we want what is best for Britain. But this vindictive Labour government has so far been destructive to everything we hold dear, and we are not afraid to call it out. For example, the winter fuel payment that was cruelly taken from 10 million pensioners this winter. By the Government’s own admission, it will throw 100,000 pensioners into abject poverty and put pressure on social services and the NHS.
Continuing with their ideological war, Labour has introduced punishing changes to inheritance tax. In classic fashion, they have clearly not thought through the practicalities of this dogmatic policy. Whilst wanting to start a class crusade with the farmers who they hate and don’t understand, they have accidentally picked a fight with bereaved military families, who will have death in service payments taxed for the first time. They will also smash family businesses up and down the country, and some elderly business owners have talked about taking their own lives for the sake of the family business!
We are firmly against this unfairness.
Not only because of the moral, ethical and practical reasons. But also, because it won’t work. In her first 100 days, Kemi has taken her engineer’s mindset to these problems. It is chalk and cheese to Keir Starmer’s dogmatic approach. As well as being bad for the country, many of Labour’s supposed tax-raising initiatives won’t even raise the revenue for the Treasury that they were meant to deliver.
Much like changes to the death tax, the education tax will tax many independent schools into oblivion but not raise any money. And it will put pressure on state school places up and down the country for the privilege. Kemi has been clear: we will reverse it.
We have led the charge against a number of damaging measures, like the Unemployment Bill which is a looming disaster for businesses large and small. It’s set to crush the spirit of private enterprise, suppress salaries and cost jobs. We all knew Labour didn’t get business, but this is truly astonishing.
Kemi has also been at the forefront in other policy areas, pushing against the Chagos surrender, for example.
However, as well as opposing what the Government is doing, it’s important to make a positive case for the future. Because we want what’s best for the country, not petty party-political points. Despite Labour’s enormous Parliamentary majority, Kemi has forced u-turns and concessions from the Labour government by making a strong case for the alternative.
For example, we got Keir Starmer to amend his flagship Education Bill after Kemi rightly accused him of ‘pure educational vandalism’. We were on the side of school children and teachers whilst they were on the side of the unions. It’s no wonder they lost the argument.
Kemi called for a national enquiry on rape gangs. Whilst Keir Starmer hasn’t gone far enough in his response, we forced him to look again at his initial weak proposal which did nothing to help victims.
We have set out a robust approach to immigration, making the path to indefinite leave to remain a privilege rather than a right and we will implement a strict cap on immigration numbers.
More policies will come, but we cannot write the manifesto for four years’ time, now. We don’t know what state the country will be in after 5 years of Labour.
Much like Margaret Thatcher, whose 50th anniversary of becoming leader of the Conservative party is tomorrow, Kemi isn’t bowing to pressure to rush out policies which may not be relevant or workable in a world that is changing faster than ever. We have got to work on detailed plans, not empty make promises. If we want to achieve the transformation our country needs, we can’t tolerate quick fixes or easily broken pledges. We are not a party of protest; we are a party of government.
But much like Mrs Thatcher, Kemi knows that our policies must all be based on sound Conservative values and principles – which we know are also shared by the majority of the British public. This Labour government is governing in a way that is the absolute opposite of what it means to be a Conservative. They are falling in the opinion polls because they are out of touch with the instincts of the British public. We will continue to highlight this fact at every opportunity and hold them to account inside and outside the chamber of the House of Commons for their mistakes.
Renewing the Conservative Party will not be easy and cannot be rushed.
But Kemi’s first 100 days has shown a clear path that will work towards the goal we all have in common: evicting Labour from Downing Street and getting a Conservative government elected. It is not a job that Kemi or any of us take lightly.