Robert Jenrick has said he believes the government is downplaying the state of the economy in order to raise taxes.
The leadership contender also said he was ‘suspicious’ of Starmer’s interest in illegal migration.
Speaking to GB News, Robert Jenrick said: “It’s important that we, the UK, has good relations with our European neighbours and allies, but I am concerned that Keir Starmer is not going to achieve his objective.
“He spoke yesterday at length and didn’t mention immigration once. So I want us to be adopting the strongest possible stance. Yes, to be working with our friends and allies on that issue, including Germany, but also having a proper deterrent.
“And one of the first acts of this Labour government was to scrap the only credible deterrent, the Rwanda policy. So I’m very suspicious, if you’ll excuse me, of Keir Starmer’s interest in illegal migration.
“I think Brexit was the right decision for this country. I want us now to reap the full benefits of it, and that means using the freedoms that we have as a result of being outside of the European Union to grow our economy, to back the industries of the future, and to ensure that we secure our borders.
“And yes, I do believe that we need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. I don’t say that for ideological reasons. I say it from the practical stance, having been a minister in the Home Office and seen how difficult it is for us to remove foreign national offenders like rapists and murderers and paedophiles from our country.
“I’ve seen the fact that there are dozens of terror suspects who we can’t survey and remove in the way that we need to. And I’ve seen how challenging it is to implement policies like Rwanda, which are essential if we’re going to grip our borders and ensure that we remove people as soon as they arrive here, for example, on small boats.
“That’s my approach. That’s what I want us to do. If I’d be lucky enough to lead the Conservative Party.
“I want us to have strong relations with our European neighbours, whether that’s on business, on immigration and security and our mutual defence interests, like the defence of Ukraine.
“But what I do not want us to do is to undermine Brexit. I want to ensure that we are taking full advantage of the freedoms that we secured as a result of leaving the European Union.
“And that will mean diverging with Europe, taking a different path at times, because we need to ensure that our business and industry, in particular, the ones that are going to drive growth in the future, like financial services, like tech, like life sciences, can have better and smarter and more nimble regulation than our European neighbours.
“I worry that Keir Starmer is going to do precisely the opposite to that.
“We need to build more prisons. I want us to be building prisons and locking up more criminals, particularly hyper prolific offenders, the people who are responsible for so many crimes, and so I want us to do that.
“We didn’t build enough prison places, although the last Conservative government did build more than the previous Labour governments. So we have been building more, but we need to do far more in the future.
“And I think that the Labour Party’s instinct is to release people too quickly. Are they doing absolutely everything, straining every sinew, to find ways of keeping those criminals in jail, not releasing them too soon?
“They said they had no option but to release criminals a few weeks ago, and then they found 500 places. So I think we can see their preference.
“Mine would be to do absolutely everything to keep those people in prison, and then, if we’re lucky enough to reenter government in the future, to build more prisons and keep more hyper prolific criminals in jail and keep them off the streets.
“I do think that the mini budget was harmful to our reputation as a party for sound economic management. It was too cavalier. We mustn’t do that again.
“We’ve got to rebuild the trust and the confidence of the public that we as Conservatives can manage and safeguard people’s pensions and mortgages and small businesses. That’s an essential part of the work that we need to do now as a party.
“Having said that the corrective measures that were put in place by Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak afterwards meant that there was no long term scarring effect, and the economy is actually growing very well.
“Now we’re the fastest growing economy in the G7, We’ve got unemployment low. We’ve left a good legacy to this Labour government.
“And now Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are pretending that the public finance is in a worse position so as to break the promises that they made just seven weeks ago, to the British public and prepare the ground for raising taxes.
“The reason why Labour are saying that they’ve got this £20 billion black hole is because they’ve chosen to spend £10 billion a year paying off their trade union paymasters, hiking pay for people like the train drivers to the tune of £10,000 a year, despite getting nothing in return.
“In fact, [they’re] not even settling the strikes, because ASLEF say they’re going to go on strike again on the East Coast Main Line, and because Ed Miliband on the high altar of net zero zealotry, is going to spend £8 billion on an energy company doesn’t even produce any energy.
“So we know that Labour are making political choices, and I think these are selfish choices. They’re the wrong choices. They’re choosing to spend money on the trade union paymasters at the expense of people, like elderly people, by scrapping the winter fuel payment. So the people on incomes as low as £11,000 a year are going to be paying the price.
“Before the general election, Rachel Reeves herself in an interview with The Financial Times, said that she knew the state of the public finances, that thanks to the OBR whose power she’s just enhancing, she could see everything and that there would be no surprises.
“Keir Starmer stood on a platform of, No ifs No buts, no tax rises for households and working people.
“They are preparing the ground to do precisely the opposite. And why are they going to be raising taxes on the middle classes? Why are they scrapping winter fuel payments for the elderly?
“They’re doing it because they want to pay back their trade union paymasters to the tune of £10 billion a year. That is the wrong political choice.
“We Conservatives are going to oppose that. This is precisely the reason why we’ve got to get together as a party, get ourselves into fighting shape, sock it to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, this autumn, and ensure there is not now 10 years of Labour Party rule of this country.”
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