Margot James welcomes new Government

Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, attended a meeting of Conservative MPs last night at which David Cameron spoke and William Hague and George Osborne spelt out the terms of the coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

It is indeed thrilling to see a Conservative Prime Minister back in Downing Street after 13 years and so much wreckage to our country. There were times around the turn of the century when some of us doubted we would ever see this time come again.

I am delighted to report that the vast majority of our manifesto will proceed with LD support as planned through Parliament. In particular there is no compromise to Conservative proposals in the following areas:

• Deficit reduction
• Europe
• Immigration
• Welfare reform
• Defence (including Trident)
• Schools and Education

The main changes we have accepted from the LD manifesto are:

• Fixed Parliamentary Terms (with the next General Election will be on the first Thursday in May 2015)
• A referendum on the Alternative Vote method of election for Parliamentary elections
• Increasing tax allowances at the bottom end of the income scale
• An increase in Capital Gains Tax for non business assets (this is crucial as the original LD proposal for a blanket increase in CGT would have been a severe disincentive to entrepreneurs)
• The pupil premium for poorer children ( I must say I thought that was one of our policies anyway)
• Inheritance tax proposals to go on the back burner

We were also able to find common ground easily on the environment and civil liberties agenda

Our proposal for a transferable income tax allowance at the basic rate of income tax for married couples and couples in a civil partnership will be put to Parliament and the LDs have agreed to abstain, not vote against, which should mean that it will get passed.

We await further confirmation about Cabinet positions.

The new government will have a Commons majority of 70 seats.