Prynhawn da!
Friends, it’s great to be here at Welsh Conservative Conference!
This is my second campaign visit to Wales in two months.
Travelling around with candidates and activists, one fact stands out for me:
What you have achieved in Wales is a model for Conservatives in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
In 1997, we were wiped out in Wales.
But, thanks to your work, we now have 1 Welsh Conservative MEP…
8 Welsh Conservative MPs…
14 Welsh Conservative Assembly Members…
More than 100 Welsh Conservative Councillors…
We are the principle Opposition today in Wales.
People are looking to us to hold Labour to account.
And you know, Labour have a lot of accounting to do.
This is something I have been wanting to say for a while:
Every voter in Wales has a right – a democratic right – to know who to blame for the problems they are struggling with…
Because these problems are not random…
They are not an accident…
It has been a Labour Government in Wales – a Labour Government run by Carwyn Jones – that is slashing the budgets of Welsh NHS services…
Driving away Welsh housebuilders…
And running down Welsh schools – to the point where the OECD now say schools in Wales are the “worst” in the United Kingdom.
It has been a Labour Government in Wales that has cut your Right to Buy…
Hiked your Council Tax…
And deprived cancer patients in local hospitals of the cancer drugs they would get in England.
Who is to blame for this, according to Carwyn Jones?
Basically, it’s everyone other than him.
At Labour’s party conference, Carwyn Jones suggested that he is in office in Cardiff, but not in power…
That the problems in Welsh public services are all the fault of Tories in Westminster.
Tories in Westminster!
He claims we are “attacking Wales”.
With respect, Carwyn, that is rubbish and you know it.
There is only one party attacking the Welsh people – and that is the Carwyn Jones Labour Party…
Ed Miliband’s Labour Party…
The tax-and-spend, hypocritical, Nanny State, bureaucratic, unaccountable, NHS-cutting shower of a Labour Party that will not even apologise for the damage they are doing to Wales.
Here are the facts.
Travel a few miles over the border to Liverpool, Telford, or Cheltenham – and none of these things are happening.
These problems are only happening in Wales, and they are only happening because of Labour.
It is Labour, in the Assembly, that should apologise for their mismanagement of this great nation.
They should apologise to the cancer patients, the NHS refugees, having to cross the border into England to find treatment.
They should apologise to the families struggling to get a home of their own.
They should apologise to the pensioners being hit by Council tax rip-offs.
Here are the facts:
House-building is up a third in England, but falling in Wales.
Labour have hit Welsh house-builders with red tape, adding thousands to the cost of building new homes.
Persimmon Homes have packed up their ladders and gone.
Their regional managing director in Wales actually said last year:
“As a Welshman this situation is deeply disappointing for me, and as a businessman in Wales hugely concerning…”
He said:
“There is a major risk - actually it is already happening - of a flight of capital that would have gone into Wales going elsewhere.”
And he finished by saying this:
“This is criminal in a country where our relative economic standing is deteriorating…”
“Deprivation expanding…”
“And our housing stock is the oldest in the whole of Europe, and one of the worst in terms of physical condition.”
There you have it: what Labour are doing to Welsh housing – “criminal”!
Not just you and me saying it.
This is what Welsh house-builders say themselves.
My old boss Eric Pickles has looked carefully at Labour’s council taxes, and he has pointed out: Welsh bills are soaring by twice the rate of inflation.
There is no council tax freeze here in Wales.
There is no democratic right for local taxpayers to veto high rises.
From April, council tax bills in Cardiff will be £180 a year more than a Band D home in Chelsea.
And what do you get for it?
It is official Labour policy in Wales to move to monthly bin collections.
Not weekly or fortnightly – monthly bin collections!
Don’t expect a Labour Government under Ed Miliband to be any different!
You, the Welsh Conservative Party, are the only hope for Welsh families who want something better for their children and grandchildren.
You have that responsibility today.
And you have it for a simple reason.
You have put in the hard yards.
You rebuilt our party from the ashes of 1997.
And on behalf of the Prime Minister and the whole Conservative Party, I want to say: diolch yn fawr.
Thank you!
Thank you to Andrew RT Davies, who has kept the pressure on Labour and is hugely energetic in putting forward a serious alternative for Wales.
Thank you to David Jones and Stephen Crabb, whose “Wales Bill” will be a major milestone showing our commitment – our actions, not words – to strengthening Welsh devolution and the role of Wales as an economic force in the United Kingdom.
Thank you to Kay Swinburne – our brilliant MEP and lead candidate in Wales, who is standing for election along with our other hardworking candidates with one simple message:
If you want real change in Europe, and a proper In/Out Referendum, you have to vote for it…
And you have to vote Conservative.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats won’t give you change, and UKIP can’t deliver.
It is no surprise that the EU Commission President himself – Barroso – actually says he “likes” to have UKIP MEPs out there in Brussels – because all UKIP do is shout from the sidelines, they never get anything done.
Only Kay Swinburne and the Conservatives can and will deliver for Wales.
We have six weeks to make the case.
You know, sometimes we can get lost in ward maps, delivery routes, postal vote forms, and the rest – politics can seem detailed and complex.
But the lesson of what you have achieved in Wales is keeping it simple.
You should be proud the Conservatives are the only low-tax party in Wales:
Cutting council tax, business rates and stamp duty…
Welsh Conservatives are the “Ronseal” Party…
A party that does what it says on the tin.
No gimmicks.
No shortcuts.
If you vote Conservative, you get this:
A stronger, more competitive economy… More jobs… More financial security for the future.
You get to keep more of your own money.
You get a party that will take difficult decisions on public spending, so that it can protect your NHS services and your schools.
Because, you know, the worst cliché in politics is that there is “no choice” between the parties.
It is not true.
There is a huge difference, especially right now.
If you are an apprentice… if you work… if you run a business; Labour’s not on your side – but the Conservatives are.
If you drive a car… if you have a mortgage… if you pay Council Tax; Labour’s not on your side – but the Conservatives are.
And if you have children… if you want rigorous standards in Welsh schools… if you want the next generation to live free of our debts; Labour’s not on your side – but the Conservatives are.
So don’t let Labour get away with what they are doing to Wales – which is just a warm up for the damage that Ed Miliband would inflict on Great Britain.
Don’t let Carwyn Jones and Labour shirk their responsibilities in Cardiff.
Because:
Every Welsh school-child growing up today who is denied a good education…
Every Welsh NHS patient who cannot get the treatment they need…
And every Welsh family who is struggling to get on the housing ladder, who is struggling with Labour’s Council Tax bills…
They need you to fight – to fight for Welsh Conservative Councillors and Welsh Conservative MEPs…
To fight for more Welsh Conservative MPs in 2015 – let’s win Gower, let’s win the Vale of Clwyd, let’s win Brecon and Radnorshire…
They need you to fight and to win a Conservative majority in the Welsh Assembly elections in 2016.
That is the change that Wales needs…
That is the hope that Wales needs…
And we can do it.
Let’s make history, let’s win it for Wales.
Thank you.