Kitsons Butchers in Northallerton serves some of the best pork pies and apple pies in the country.
Trust me, it’s delicious. But for me, the family-run shop in North Yorkshire is the epitome of the British grit, the graft that gives joy to customers, earns a living for staff, gives businesses prosperity and empowers so many small businesses across the country. , and also the perfect expression of passion. community.
As Prime Minister, I have been fortunate to visit thousands of small businesses across the country, meet their hard-working employees and hear their stories of how they came together.
We see them going to great lengths to provide for their families and build a better future for all of us.
I am determined that their efforts will be rewarded.
This is personal for me. My mother owned a pharmacy, and as a teenager I did a little bit of work in the family business, delivering prescriptions and helping with books.
My mother is now retired, but that experience left me with a lasting respect for all small businesses.
The Conservative Party, the party of the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son, will always be the party of business, the party of small businesses, the party that believes ambition and aspiration should be celebrated and hard work rewarded.
This is not a promise for the distant future, but something we are doing now. Look at your January pay slip.
Our disciplined economic management has enabled us to cut national insurance for 27 million workers from this month.
As a result, people on average wages will see their take-home pay increase by £450 this year.
promoting growth
Whenever possible, we will always prioritize tax cuts to put more money back into people’s pockets.
There is no doubt that the coronavirus and global instability with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have made life more difficult for people over the past few years.
That’s why I’ve worked hard to get our economy back on track by halving inflation, reducing debt and boosting growth.
We have made considerable progress. In just 12 months, inflation fell from 11.1 percent to 4 percent.
Wages are rising faster than prices. And the economy has fared better than expected, outperforming its European neighbors, including Germany.
We have cut taxes on business investment by £11 billion. This has been rated by hundreds of business leaders as the most transformative thing we can do for business investment and growth. This shows that the UK is a great place to invest.
Just look at Nissan announcing it will build new electric cars in Sunderland, Orsted building the world’s largest offshore wind farm off Grimsby, and Microsoft doubling its UK footprint.
Our technology sector is twice the size of anywhere else in Europe, and we now have a manufacturing industry larger than France’s.
splurge
Of course, there is still much work to be done and there will be challenges along the way. Inflation does not fall in a straight line.
But because of the progress we’ve made, we can afford to cut taxes as part of our plan to reward work and grow our economy.
As well as reducing National Insurance contributions, the tax rules have also changed so that you can now earn up to £1,000 a month without paying any tax or National Insurance contributions.
We have frozen fuel taxes for motorists. We will also cap bus fares at £2, support parents in returning to work by providing 30 hours of free childcare for children over nine months, and achieve the biggest ever rise in the National Living Wage. We are on track to end low wages. This country.
We’re also committed to ensuring energy security and lowering your bills.
I want to achieve net zero by 2050. But in an affordable way with your support.
That’s why I’ve introduced changes that will save households thousands of pounds.
Labor, by contrast, opposes strengthening energy security and does not want British oil and gas to grow, so it wants to shift the cost of getting it to net zero onto the shoulders of the public.
The economy is starting to turn a corner.
That’s why we need to stick to our plans to bring about the long-term change this country needs.
And those who seek to defeat Britain at every opportunity, especially those who daily vilify our country and are intent on thwarting this Government’s determination to control our borders and achieve our goals. We will not forgive those in the Labor Party. People’s priorities.
All Keir Starmer proposes on the economy is a £28bn waste that will take us back to square one.
Mr Starmer cannot say how he will pay for this spending – twice what we spend on police in the UK – because he has no plan.
And since he has no plan to pay for it, his taxes will have to come in to cover the cost.
So instead of going back to square one with Keir Starmer who can’t say what he’s going to do because he doesn’t have a plan, to build a stronger economy – one where hard work rewards and everyone has the skills they need. Let’s continue our efforts. A chance to succeed.
That is the future that the British people deserve.
The choice is clear – cut taxes with me or raise taxes with Starmer.