500 Words
As part of our 2017 General Election coverage, we have contacted each candidate standing in Northfield, Bromsgrove, Edgbaston and Selly Oak constituencies asking them to contribute to this election’s ’500 Words’ series.
Each candidate has been invited to describe themselves and their campaigns in their own words. Their submissions will be published without editing, in the order that they are received. Should they be longer than 500 words, they will be cropped.
Caroline Squire – Conservative – Edgbaston
Our Conservative Plan for a Brighter Birmingham
The manifestos are out and the choice has never been clearer. Theresa May and the Conservatives will invest in young people’s futures, through fairer funding for schools, more apprenticeships and greater job creation. Corbyn will take us back to the 1970s.
I’m standing for election as the Conservative candidate in Birmingham Edgbaston because I share Theresa May’s vision for Britain. Like my great-great grandfather, Joe Chamberlain, who founded the University of Birmingham and helped lay early foundations of the welfare state, I am a One Nation Conservative. I want a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few, and delivers prosperity to ordinary working families across the country.
Birmingham doesn’t need another dose of Labour’s economic incompetence. What our city needs a strong and stable government capable of delivering the right conditions for the aspirational to flourish. Only the Conservatives, with our proven track record of providing economic growth, better standards of living and more jobs, can provide this.
Since 2010, in Birmingham Edgbaston alone, 4,650 people have started apprenticeships, 475 small businesses have opened and those claiming out of work benefits in Edgbaston has dropped by 35 per cent. Over 45,000 people in Edgbaston have had their income tax cut in the last two years. These aren’t just numbers, these are thousands of real, ordinary working people whose lives who have been transformed for the better by the Conservative government.
Nor are those thousands in Edgbaston who have benefited confined to the well off, with the Conservatives having a proud record of helping the less fortunate in our society. Edgbaston schools have received £6.1 million in the last year alone for disadvantaged pupils through the Pupil Premium. More young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are going to university than ever before.
I’m looking forward to building on the Conservatives’ national record to deliver to Birmingham. From HS2 to further planned cuts in corporation tax, over the next Parliament the Conservatives are determined to make Birmingham an even more attractive place for investment.
On top of this, Andy Street, the newly elected Conservative Mayor for the West Midlands, has vowed to fight tooth and nail to secure Birmingham as the new location for Channel 4. If successful, Channel 4’s relocation will bring even more investment and graduate jobs to Birmingham.
There is so much that the Conservatives have to offer for Birmingham that the choice has never been clearer. If you want a shambolic administration which, so consumed with party infighting, fails to address any of your concerns, vote for Corbyn’s coalition of chaos. If you want more jobs, greater investment and economic growth for Birmingham, vote for Theresa May’s strong and stable Conservative government.
If you’d like to hear more about Caroline’s campaign for Edgbaston, you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook or read more about her policies on her website.
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General Election 2017 Events & Hustings in South West Birmingham
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