Speech by Margot James to the Stourbridge Breakfast Club

Margot was invited to speak at the Stourbridge Business Breakfast Group, run by Talbots Solicitors. Read her speech in full.

Introduction

I was born and brought up in Coventry so when I put myself forward to be selected as the Conservative candidate here in Stourbridge I felt quite local. To my surprise the initial reaction in the press when I got selected was “why didn’t the Conservatives select a local candidate”. Well Coventry might not be Black Country but it is only 25 miles away so I certainly could have been a lot less local! Furthermore I felt an affinity for the Black Country as my father who left school at 14 with no qualifications started a haulage business shifting coal from the coalfields around Dudley and Stourbridge back in the mid 1930s and he later diversified into engineering with a plant in Wolverhampton, waste disposal and car transporting.

My second job after graduating was working in my Dad’s business before starting my own company down in London. Having been steeped in Midlands industry almost since the day I was born, I was always slightly embarrassed about running a service business, PR of all things, something not quite real about it. A feeling very much reinforced by Dad who couldn’t understand what it was all about. His philosophy was if you didn’t make something, move something or at least sell something then what on earth were you doing? And it wasn’t until I sold the company ten years ago that we both realised that yes, it was the real thing after all.

Government record

So, from business to politics, I must say I couldn’t help but be amused by Nicolas Sarkozy’s comments on the British economy last week. Gordon Brown has been strutting the world stage over this financial crisis so it must have been a blow when the old enemy said that the policies he had been pursuing back at home had, and I quote, ‘brought absolutely no progress.’ But his other comment, that the UK has no industry left to help wasn’t funny at all, that hurt because, although not true, its too near the truth for comfort. Speaking in very undiplomatic language then Sarkozy summed up what has been so wrong with this government’s record:

• an over reliance on the service economy in general and financial services in particular;
• too little support for manufacturing;
• a massive expansion of the public sector at the expense of the private sector (funded by stealth taxes, so many of which have been levied on business and employment);
• and a passionate concern of mine, the lack of rigour and discipline in our schools which has led to more than a million young people who lack basic skills such that they have been left on benefits while we imported the same number of people from E Europe to fill most of those new jobs created in the boom years.

Conservative Solutions

People want to know of course well how will it be different under the Conservative Party? I am confident that if we can win two terms our country will be run very differently. But in terms of the initial change we are committed to there are a few key principles:

• First of all we will restore sound fiscal management and that means one of the biggest dividing lines between us and the government at the moment – we will get control of public spending NOW and not in two years time.
• We will support business, for example we are committed to removing the planned increase in National Insurance. The UK has the third fastest growth in unemployment of all the European economies; what a time to be planning a tax on jobs.
• We will start the process of moving to a fair, transparent and ultimately I hope low taxation regime for both businesses and individuals;
• and finally we will light a bonfire of excessive regulation, for example, anyone who works in property will I’m sure welcome our proposal to abolish Home Information Packs.

When I knock on doors in Stourbridge some people say it will be an impossible job, no one can fix it, what a time to get in to Government, you’ll have a terrible time and I say no. I am convinced that David Cameron is the man for the job, and I want to be a part of a reforming and confident government that puts Britain back on track again.

You know a good thing about pursuing politics as a second career and going in a bit older as I am trying to do, is that you’ve seen a lot, nothing as bad as now I’ll admit, in that I agree with Ed Balls, certainly about the world situation anyway, but Britain has been in a worse place, in the 1970s when we were the sick man of Europe, (ironically after the last Labour government had finished with the economy) and then there was the recession in the early nineties when my business was just five years old.

I tell people who are anxious and pessimistic, you know not all the improvements we want to make will cost money. I had an expression in business where we had a client we needed to keep who couldn’t give us any more budget “we’ve got no money so we’ve got to think”.

If I’m elected, and before, I plan to lobby for all sorts of improvements that don’t actually cost anything:

• a reduction in the burden of health and safety regulation and a right of appeal against health and safety decisions in certain circumstances
• A default position of minimal implementation for every new EU regulation
• A dropping of the 50% target for young people to attend university
• and a substantial drop in immigration from outside the EU to ease pressures on housing and other resources

I could go on, but there is work to be done out there and I mustn’t keep you. I’ll end with my own promise that if elected as one of your local MPs I shall fight for Stourbridge, the Black Country and the West Midlands. Such has been the effects of the Government’s pre-occupation with the city of London, Britain has really become two economies, it was quite a shock to me coming back to the Midlands full time, that in so many areas of public life here we are starved of resources for transport, for regeneration, and for our manufacturing base;

Yes, I’ll be working for a much fairer deal for the people here in Stourbridge, people among whom I am so glad to be and so keen to represent.

Photo: Margot James with Martyn Morgan, Partner at Talbots Solicitors.