The General Election campaign is now approaching the end with Polling Day tomorrow, Thursday 7 May 2015. The Conservative Manifesto has been published and contains many positive policies which will make Britain more secure and stronger.
Our policies to freeze rail fares, raise the tax free allowance so no-one on the National Minimum Wage will pay income tax, increase the 40p threshold to £50,000, increase the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million, and provide 30 hours of free childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds will reward work and save families money.
Importantly for the Witham constituency, the Manifesto contains a pledge to improve rail services on the Great Eastern Main Line. This is an issue I have campaigned on for the last five years. The Conservatives are the only Party in the General Election committed to ensuring our rail services are improved and upgraded and along with the freeze in rail fares at the rate of inflation, under a Conservative Government commuters will get better value for money.
Because the economy is growing and getting stronger as a result of the success of the long-term economic plan, a Conservative Government will be able to pledge at least £8 billion more funding for the NHS. This is what the NHS has asked for to address future pressures and it is only the Conservatives who will be able to deliver this investment package in full. At the last General Election we were the only Party to promise to increase spending on the NHS and over the last five years we have increased NHS funding by £13 billion.
We have cut waste and bureaucracy and instead invested in providing more frontline services, more doctors, nurses and midwives, and providing more treatments to patients. We have also focused on improving the quality of care provision in the NHS and our commitment to the NHS to providing free healthcare and to invest in improving health services will continue under a Conservative Government.
Across the Witham constituency unemployment has fallen over the last five years, apprenticeship starts have doubled and youth unemployment is in decline as more jobs are being created in the economy. The number of schools rated 'Outstanding' by Ofsted has doubled and under a Conservative Government, investment in schools, education, apprenticeships and training will continue so that young people can have the best start in life.
We will also be supporting more families to get onto the property ladder and to own their own home. Our plans to extend the right to buy to 1.3 million more households in housing association properties and build 200,000 new starter homes for first-time buyers means that home ownership will become a reality for thousands more local families.
Our plans for housebuilding also support the protection of green spaces and empower local communities to decide development sites in their areas. This contrasts with the Labour Party in this constituency, who have pledged that they support the reintroduction of regional planning.
Regional planning was the system under the last Labour Government where bureaucrats based miles away imposed housebuilding targets and developments on local communities. This would be an enormous danger to our countryside and our green spaces and local democratic decision-making would be at risk.
I would like to thank the many residents from across the constituency who I have met on the doorstep in recent weeks and for the warm, supportive and welcome reception they have given to me. I have also enjoyed the discussions I have had about Conservative Party policies and the opportunity at hustings and on the doorstep to provide residents with the facts and respond to the spin and misinformation from other political parties.
Elections are a fundamental part of our democratic process and it has been great to see so many residents engaged and asking probing questions about policies.
Priti Patel, Parliamentary Candidate for Witham
A version of this article was originally published by the Tiptree Tribune on 27 April 2015