If Sir Keir Starmer is prime minister this weekend, then the newly-elected Labour government will set Britain on a path backwards and towards bankruptcy.
Throughout the election campaign, Starmer, his deputy, Angela Rayner, and Labour candidates across the country have relentlessly talked down Britain, aided and abetted by their allies in the media and the Left-wing institutions that infect our country.
But despite the difficulties and challenges our country has faced from the Covid pandemic, war in Ukraine and global inflationary pressures, Labour stands poised to inherit a country on the way up.
Inflation is down to target and lower than in the Eurozone and the US. Our economy is growing and, since 2010, our growth has outperformed that of our major European neighbours. We fixed the financial mess left by Labour and brought the deficit down from an unsustainable level, where one pound in every four spent was borrowed.
We have new post-Brexit trade deals in place that should support an expansion in exports and trade with fast-growing parts of the world. While our public services face pressures, the NHS has more doctors and nurses, with new investments in diagnostic centres, cancer treatments, dementia support and mental health making a positive difference to many.
Teacher numbers are rising, with almost 2,000 added a year on average, far more than the pledge made by Labour, and education standards have risen, with children in England now among the best readers in the Western world. We have a high level of employment and welfare reforms that have led to 800 people a day on average finding work.
British workers have benefited from higher wages, lower tax rates on household incomes and higher pensions, while we have unleashed the power of business and enterprise to secure investment and jobs.
Conservatives have also made our country safer with more police on our streets and new laws to punish offenders and support victims, and we have a comprehensive plan to secure our borders and tackle the difficulties posed by illegal migration.
This progress will be threatened should a Labour government be elected. The party’s manifesto is the flimsiest produced by a potential incoming administration, but what they want for our country should frighten us all. Our countryside is at risk from Labour’s plans to bulldoze over our green spaces and green belt.
Businesses face being squeezed by a new avalanche of red tape as Labour obeys the demands of its trade union paymasters and Brussels. Eco-zealots like Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan will push forward a net zero agenda that will punish motorists with higher taxes on fuel and the risk of Ulez-style road pricing schemes, while households will pay through the nose for their green schemes. Older people living on the state pension face being dragged into paying income tax, while working-age families and the self-employed will not benefit from the reductions in National Insurance contributions the Conservatives planned.
The defence, safety and security of our country will also be at risk. Labour MPs that will be elected have opposed the nuclear deterrent, and like Starmer backed Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister twice. Starmer has also opposed the strong measures we have put in place to punish criminals and secure our borders. The British people should never forget that Starmer campaigned to keep murderers and sex offenders on our streets.
With such a shameful record, it is no wonder that Starmer has been evasive and secretive about his plans. His change of position on his support for Corbyn demonstrates that he cannot be trusted and will never be straight with the British people. Labour’s campaign has been based on desperately blaming the Tories for the challenges that Britain faces and putting blatant political opportunism above having a clear and costed plan for the future. And while I know that many of our supporters may be tempted to vote Reform, that party has no vision for the future of Britain. Voting for them would only serve to give Starmer an extra hand up into No 10.
A vote for Labour will mean an uncertain and unsafe future, higher taxes, the destruction of the countryside and an erosion of our values. It’s only by voting Conservative that Britain’s future can be secured.
Priti Patel is running to be re-elected as Conservative MP for Witham
