Welsh Conservatives today launched their General Election manifesto with a pledge to end Labour’s poverty of ambition for Wales.
The manifesto outlines Conservative plans to get the Welsh economy moving through measures to create jobs and support businesses, support families and develop safe communities, and give people real power and control over their own lives.
Some of the manifesto’s key proposals include:
- Boosting enterprise by stopping the most damaging part of Labour’s tax on jobs
- Opening up Government procurement to smaller companies
- Increasing health spending every year, protecting funds for Wales, and working to ensure the Welsh NHS has the resources it needs
- Supporting electrification of the Great Western rail line to South Wales, with a commitment to developing a high speed rail link to Wales
- Granting a referendum on further powers for the National Assembly
- Developing a super-fast broadband network throughout the UK
- Encouraging public sector workers to come together to form employee-led co-operatives and bid to take over the services they run
- Creating a Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets, to provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other nongovernmental bodies
- Introducing a community right to buy scheme, giving local communities the chance to bid to run ailing local services like pubs and post offices
- Re-establishing the link between the basic state pension and earnings, and protecting schemes such as winter fuel payments, free bus travel and free TV licences
In a joint foreword to the manifesto, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan and Welsh Conservative Assembly leader Nick Bourne say:
“At this election, people in Wales face a simple choice. Change with David Cameron’s Conservatives or more of the same with Gordon Brown and Labour.
“Now we know in Wales what more of the same looks like. It can be summed up in one word: complacency.
“Labour has regarded Wales as its own personal fiefdom for generations and lacks any ambition for its future.
“That is why the First Minister described our struggling economy as ‘not that bad’.
“That is why the Secretary of State feels reassured by the fact that Wales is outperforming Rwanda.
“You only have to look at the facts and figures to see where this attitude has got us.
“We have a higher unemployment rate than any other nation of the UK and our wages are among the lowest.
“The number of new businesses starting in Wales is lower than almost anywhere else in the UK, and the economic gap between Wales and the rest of the UK has widened.
“Over the last few years, Conservatives have been working hard in Parliament, in the Assembly, in Europe, in councils and in towns and villages across Wales, to offer a real alternative.
“We have shown that we have not only the energy and determination, but also the right policies to really make a difference in Wales and Britain.
“We are not afraid to be ambitious about Wales’s future.
“We want to see a family-friendly Wales, where parents are supported and no-one has to choose between their children and their career.
“We want to see a Wales where communities come together again to support each other, to pass on skills to those seeking employment, to revitalize neighbourhoods and to rescue ailing local facilities.
“We want to see a working Wales, with a thriving private sector, a solid infrastructure and a first rate skills base that will make it, once again, one of the most attractive places to do business in the world.
“We want to see politicians of all parties in Wales and at Westminster working together and putting Wales first.
“So we will work with the Welsh Assembly Government as, even though we may often disagree, working together is the only way to make devolution work for Wales.
“Conservatives believe that people in Wales and Britain deserve better; that ‘not that bad’ is not good enough.
“We believe it is time for change, and with your help and your vote, we can deliver it.”
In the foreword to the manifesto, Conservative Party leader David Cameron says:
“A country is at its best when the bonds between people are strong and when the sense of national purpose is clear. Today the challenges facing Britain are immense.
“Our economy is overwhelmed by debt, our social fabric is frayed and our political system has betrayed the people.
“But these problems can be overcome if we pull together and work together. If we remember that we are all in this together.”
