Weekly News- letter published on the economy

The following letter was published this week in the Widnes and Runcorn Weekly News:

It is easy for politicians to attack bankers for their greed and incompetence. But we also need politicians to be straight with the British people on failure of the Government to tackle our current economic problems.

In Britain we have a £178 billion deficit. The Government will spend £64 billion a year on debt interest; this is equivalent to the money raised each year from fuel duty, inheritance tax, stamp duty and council tax combined. The deficit will also push up interest rates over time, meaning more expensive mortgages and credit card bills for all of us.

This is a dire state of affairs, made worse by the Government’s failure to take the tough decisions needed on spending before the election, which means there will be higher taxes and higher interest rates if they win the election.

Last week, the Government had an opportunity to be honest with the British people and use its Pre-Budget Report to take the action needed to help our economy. Instead, they failed to set out a credible plan for dealing with our debt crisis. They failed to show how they would return the economy to growth, but instead punished hard working people by introducing a National Insurance hike which will mean a smaller pay packet for anyone earning £20,000 or more.

By contrast, the Conservatives are being straight with people. We have made tough decisions to cut the cost of Whitehall by a third, reduce benefits for better-off families, bring forward the increase in the state pension age, and freeze public sector pay for all but the million lowest earners. We have also set out a plan for supporting the economy back to growth by being pro-enterprise and pro-wealth creation. Within 50 days of taking office we would introduce an Emergency Growth Budget to reduce the main rate of Corporation Tax to 25p and the small companies’ rate to 20p.We will cut red tape on business and abolish tax on the first ten jobs created by new businesses during the first two years of a Conservative government.

Unlike Labour, we are not ducking the tough choices. We have bold plans to fix our broken economy. Only the Conservatives can offer Halton and the country the change it desperately needs.

Yours sincerely,
Ben Jones
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Halton