I'm very grateful to local residents for their good wishes following my election as Leader of the Conservative Party and His Majesty’s Opposition. I feel immensely honoured and privileged to have been given the opportunity to do so and would not be here had you not put your faith in me to continue to represent our North West Essex constituency.
In recent months I've spoken about governing from first principles. By that I mean understanding what values we are promoting before throwing out policy ideas.
These principles: truth, personal responsibility, a sense of citizenship and community, equality under the law, and the belief in family as the foundation of our society are ones that I ran my campaign on. These are held by the vast majority of the British public.
Over the last few months, I met thousands of people and what came across was a sense of frustration that the last Government, and even more so this current one, is failing to keep these basic values at the foundation of policy. I am working to change that.
I know many of you will be wondering how I will carry on with my role as your Member of Parliament. When I was a Secretary of State, I was able to lobby behind the scenes for policies that benefited communities like ours while being in the government. As Leader of the Opposition this changes, but I now have the best opportunity to effectively hold the Labour government to account on the promises they made to the electorate during the election, policies that affect all of us here in North West Essex.
Residents may have seen my first PMQs where I called on Labour to reverse the family farm tax announced during the budget. This cruel tax threatens farmers across the country, including farmers here in our rural constituency who are deeply concerned about the impact it is going to have on their livelihoods. Whether it is the family farm tax or increasing national insurance costs on our small businesses (a tax on jobs), putting many of them at risk, it is becoming clear that Labour don’t understand rural communities or where economic growth comes from (hint, it's business not government).
Unlike the previous government, none of the cabinet have ever owned or run a business and so they don't understand. They prefer to play student politics and indulge the ideologies of their youth.
Having represented our constituency for the last 7 years, you have told me what matters most to you. My views have been formed by all those in our communities who I have met during surgeries, and visits to schools and businesses. I have corresponded with thousands of you on all kinds of topics from our NHS to law and order.
I will continue to be out and about across the constituency and the country hearing from communities like ours. I want residents to know that my team and I will continue as we always have done, to support residents across North West Essex; be that casework enquiries, visits or surgeries. If you need anything from me, please email [email protected]
