We are now into the, all-too-welcome I’m sure, final 24 hours of this campaign. It has been a long although exciting campaign. I have visited every part of the constituency and met with large numbers of people and am heartened by the warm reception I have received. This election is critical. We have unprecedented national debt and we need to address it immediately so that we don’t hand a debt ridden country to our children.

The Conservatives have set out a contract with the people of Britain. From day one we will start to honour this no nonsense, no frills contract – to cut the waste, sort out the welfare mess, improve front line services and deliver change for the better. We won’t leave the poorest and the most vulnerable behind, because we’re all in this together.

If we don’t do these things, you should vote us out in five years’ time. A Conservative Government will be accountable to you.

Finally as the Labour campaign has got more desperate in the past few days, they are trying to scare families, older people and the vulnerable. I need to quickly address a couple of Labour’s lies that have rightly upset people:

• On tax credits. Labour are telling voters that a Conservative government would cut tax credits for families on lower or average incomes. As our manifesto sets out: “We support tax credits and will continue to provide the range of tax credits to families, although we can no longer justify paying tax credits to households earning more than £50,000.” Labour agree that the median family income is about £33,000 – so it is misleading to say our policy would hit average families.
• On Sure Start. We will strengthen Sure Start by recruiting thousands of new Sure Start Health Visitors and introducing a universal Sure Start Health Visitor service - improving the support Sure Start is able to provide to every family. I have personally visited several of our local children’s centres and met many centre managers and their staff.
• On benefits for older people. We will protect key benefits – the Winter Fuel Allowance, free bus passes, free TV licences and the pension credit. And unlike Labour, we will not scrap Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance for the over 65s.
• On cancer drugs. We will create a £200 million Cancer Drugs Fund, and reform the way the NHS buys drugs, so that every patient has access to the drugs they need.

I urge you to vote Conservative tomorrow as that is the only way we will get a new government that starts cleaning up the mess on Friday.

Best wishes




Mike Penning