A Conservative minister has said his party is committed to cutting taxes and controlling borders and said that both the opposition parties and the public supported the policies which required the government to raise taxes.
Greg Hands also revealed he was only 1 per cent ahead of Labour in his constituency, warning those considering voting Reform they would hand Labour a win.
Speaking to GB News, Greg Hands said: “Conservatives have delivered record nurses, record doctors in the NHS, record NHS funding, record education funding. At the same time, we are the only party committed to bringing down taxes. We’d be bringing it down taxes this year.
“We’re committed to bringing down taxes over the course of the next parliament and we’re the only party that can be trusted with the country’s borders.
“I think Labour cannot be trusted on tax, cannot be trusted on borders, cannot be trusted on welfare. So I put it as straightforwardly as that.
“Most people recognise the difficulty that country went through in the pandemic and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. All of those policies were supported by other parties and actually, by the people across the country.
“Clearly that has to be repaid but only the Conservatives have been cutting taxes this year, and only the Conservatives are committed to cutting taxes over the course of this Parliament as well.
“Immigration arrivals have been falling. We’ve obviously got more work to do. But again, only the Conservatives want to do anything about this. A vote for Reform would just be a vote to help Sir Keir Starmer and Labour voted against the legislation more than a hundred times on immigration. And Labour themselves want to put up taxes. They haven’t ruled out tax rises on inheritance tax, capital gains tax, extra council tax bands. We’ve seen the 20% new tax on independent school parents.
“Labour are committed to driving up tax to the highest point in our history and that is just looking at the numbers in their manifesto, let alone what else they could bring in if they have the kind of majority that Keir Starmer wants to have.
“The Conservative manifesto doesn’t include a single tax rise, it’s all about tax cuts. The Labour manifesto doesn’t include a single tax cut, it’s all about tax rises. The difference on tax could hardly be stronger.
“When you go to the House of Commons you see Labour day in and day out voting against those crucial migration measures: 118 times they voted against those measures.
“There’s a huge difference between the two but if I might, this is all about looking forward to the next five years. Who do you want to have as your member of parliament over the next five years? It’s not just about the past record.
“I think the real danger is a big majority for Labour. A blank cheque will allow them to do whatever they like on tax, have open borders and doing all kinds of other things that I think will be very, very damaging to our country.
“And a vote for Reform is just going to make that more likely, it’s going to make it more likely that Labour win individual constituencies like mine, for example. I’m only 1% ahead of Labour in my constituency. If people started to vote for Reform they’d be making it much more likely that Labour would get another MP.
“So that’s the picture going on up and down the country. A vote for reform is a vote for Keir Starmer.
“I think the Conservative Party will do significantly better next Thursday than those polls a week or two weeks ahead of the election. I think the Conservative Party will do better than those polls are saying. We just need to get more people realising that a vote for anybody other than the Conservatives is another vote for Keir Starmer into number 10.
“And I don’t think that’s in the interest of the country. I don’t think it’s in the interests of your viewers and I don’t think it’s in the interest of my constituents either.”
