Reform is Corbynism with a flag: the Tories stand for economic freedom
I confess I shudder every time I hear that word. Yet politicians from Keir Starmer to Nigel Farage are now gleefully chanting 'nationalisation!' as a solution to every economic challenge in the utterly deluded belief that the answer to our problems is getting civil servants to take control of business.
The Conservative Party knows that the state is already too big, much too slow, and doing far too much and doing it badly. Some of that happened under previous Conservative governments. It's my job to fix this and to ensure that those mistakes are never repeated.
The solution isn't more government, it's smarter government, better government – and that means getting out of the way of private enterprise.
Growth comes from business, from the risk-takers, from the people who devote their time, money and energy to building things.
It doesn't come from the politicians sat in offices dreaming up new ways to spend your taxes. Yet that is now the way Starmer and Farage are talking about economic growth.
Let's start with oil and gas. As many as 10,000 jobs have been lost in this sector recently. According to Offshore Energies UK, capital investment in our domestic industry is set to collapse from £14.1 billion to £2.3 billion in just four years. The business environment is not friendly and not competitive.
But what is Reform's answer? Give the Government a stake in new oil and gas fields.
Labour's? Hike the so-called 'windfall tax' and make it permanent. Both will scare off serious investors.
On Friday I called on the Labour Government to scrap the windfall tax on North Sea producers. The windfall is gone, but the tax is still there, strangling investment and killing jobs and growth.
I am proposing a solution that puts business and workers first. But naturally Labour criticised it.
The same fantasy economics is playing out in steel. British Steel in Scunthorpe is haemorrhaging money – losing nearly £1 million a day. Labour's answer is to nationalise it. Reform's is to do the same, but with even more gusto!
When the Port Talbot steelworks faced a similar crisis, I worked with a private company – Tata Steel – to find a solution that made economic sense and secured a future for the community in South Wales.
Because unlike Starmer and Farage, I know to be successful a business doesn't need politicians telling it how to operate. It needs politicians who will listen to what those who do the job says works.
The Labour government started taking us backwards last year – sneaking through rail nationalisation, hoping voters had forgotten the British Rail disaster.
It's not just farcical that the first nationalised train ended up being a replacement bus service, it's a warning of what's to come.
And after oil, steel and rail, the next on their list is water. The drumbeat to nationalise Thames Water is getting louder. But the answer isn't to send civil servants in. The answer is to create a climate where investment flows in rather than out. That means protecting the profit motive, not punishing it.
Everyone knows we Conservatives have a battle on our hands. Reform pretends to be a Right-wing party, but economically Reform is Corbynism with a flag: more benefits, more subsidies, more central planning, more control. It is socialism that is dressed up as patriotism.
Under Labour, business taxes are at record highs. The Trade unions are running everything from education to business policy – hence the Employment Rights Bill that effectively makes everyone a union member unless they choose to opt out of it.
The public sector is getting inflation-busting pay rises, while the private sector (the source of economic growth) is getting squeezed. It should tell you all you need to know that 10,000 entrepreneurs have already fled the country since Starmer took over last year.
Reform and Labour both want to grow the state. Under my leadership the Conservatives will prioritise growing opportunity and prosperity. Margaret Thatcher once said progress comes from the 'inventiveness, ability, determination and the pioneering spirit' of ordinary people. She was right then and she's right now.
The Conservative Party is not here to run your business, or burden you with endless taxes and pointless regulation.
We are the last line of defence for economic freedom, and we will stop the other parties from taking away what belongs to you.
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