Conservative Candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Simon Clarke, has welcomed the Party’s General Election Manifesto.
Simon said, “This is a manifesto which is right for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland and right for Britain. It sets out a roadmap for continued economic growth, an orderly Brexit and a fairer society – all under the leadership of Theresa May, who I know from thousands of conversations people in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland trust and respect.”
The key issues in the Manifesto are as follows:
- On Brexit: Theresa May will deliver the strong and stable leadership needed to secure a good Brexit deal. Jeremy Corbyn is a shambles and would make a complete mess of the negotiations –ordinary working families would pay the price.
- On the NHS: the Conservatives will increase spending by a minimum of £8 billion in real terms over the next five years, delivering an increase in real funding per head of population for every year of the parliament.
- On pensions: the State Pension has increased by over £1,250 since the Conservatives entered Government in 2010, reducing pensioner poverty to historically low levels. The Conservatives will continue to provide dignity to older people while maintaining fairness for working people. From 2020, a Double Lock will ensure pensions rise in line with the earnings that pay for them, or in line with inflation – whichever is highest.
- On getting immigration down to sustainable levels – which means the tens of thousands.
- On the deficit: the Conservatives will continue to restore the public finances over the course of the next Parliament, leading to a balanced budget by the middle of the next decade. The deficit is now down by three quarters as a share of our economy.
- On school funding: the Conservatives will increase the overall schools budget by £4 billion in real terms by 2022 and ensure that no school has its budget cut as a result of the new, fair school funding formula.
- On fair energy markets: the Conservatives will cap energy prices to protect ordinary working families from unjustified rises in energy bills.
- On elderly care: The Conservatives are making a commitment to a long-term plan to make the social care system fundamentally fairer, better funded and more sustainable, raising the limit on the amount families can keep after care costs and ensuring nobody has to sell their home to pay for care during their lifetime.
- On defence: while Jeremy Corbyn would destroy Britain’s armed forces and threaten the future of our nuclear deterrent, the Conservatives will maintain the 2% NATO spending commitment and ensure defence spending rises above inflation every year.
- On housing: the Conservatives will meet our existing pledge to build a million homes by the end of 2020, with a further 500,000 by the end of 2022. New council housing deals will allow local authorities to build more social housing. Fixed-term social houses will be built and sold privately after 10 to 15 years, with an automatic right to buy for tenants.
You can read the Conservative manifesto in full here: https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto