Shrewsbury's Conservative MP defends party's performance amid concerns over election threat from Reform UK
As Reform UK shows no signs of backing down in its bid to challenge the Conservatives at the next General Election a Shropshire MP has admitted the move could be hugely damaging for the Tory Party at the ballot box.
Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has suggested that the successor party, Reform UK, could even replace the Tories if they lose to Labour at the next election.
Fresh from his exploits in the I'm a Celebrity jungle, Mr Farage is yet to confirm whether he will stand for Reform at the next election.
He has also suggested that Labour could hold power for a decade, such has been the dissatisfaction with the Conservative's 12-year reign.
In 2019, Reform backed off from a direct confrontation with the Tories after commitments by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The situation meant the party did not stand against sitting Conservative MPs.
But, speaking earlier this month, Reform's leader Richard Tice, sounded a warning that this time they would directly challenge the Tories, saying "they've had their chance".
He called on Tories to stand down instead, and make way for Reform candidates.
Mr Tice said: "The Tories, they've had their chance. We stood down for them in 2019. They've messed up, they've completely fouled up. It's time for them to do the decent thing on behalf of the country."
The move could be hugely damaging for a Conservative Party that is already trailing Sir Kier Starmer's Labour Party in the polls.
Now Shrewsbury & Atcham's Conservative MP, Daniel Kawczynski has written to the Shropshire Star, issuing a heartfelt defence of his party's performance over the past 12 years – and voicing his fears that the actions of Reform UK, Mr Tice, and Mr Farage, could open the way for Labour to win the next General Election.
Daniel Kawczynski MP's letter:
On his excellent and informative Show last week on GB News Nigel Farage refused to allow me to explain how in the first nine years of this Conservative administration we managed to reduce the annual deficit every single year.
This was a very difficult task and at every step of the way we were vilified by Mr Miliband, Mr Corbyn and Sir Keir.
They called it Austerity; we called it living within your means.
We reduced the annual deficit from over £180 billion a year in 2010 to under £18 billion in 2019.
This means that in that year before the national Pandemic Britain got within a whisker of paying for herself.
For an economy of our size in 2019 running an overall budget deficit of £18 billion is practically running a balanced budget.
Nigel was not interested in this and claimed that the national debt has continued to go up.
Yes of course he is right if a country has an annual deficit the national debt will continue to increase.
The point is that in peace time we managed to methodically reduce the annual deficit every year for nine years which is essential when preparing for the next global storm to erupt and throw us off course.
Of course, this happened at the start of 2020 when the worst national pandemic to affect this country for many generations descended on us from abroad.
Some argue the government was too generous with assistance given to millions of citizens and companies.
Some argue we should not have locked down and instead implemented a policy like Sweden.
In this regard they fail to mention that Sweden although significantly bigger than Britain has a population smaller than London.
Nevertheless, we borrowed an unprecedented amount of money to keep everything afloat whilst the country stopped producing for over a year.
This has blown a massive hole in our public finances and as a result taxation over last few years has had to be increased to a 70-year high to pay the costs of this unprecedented move.
I am pleased PM Sunak has done an effective job in reducing inflation, reigning in the budget, and getting the country back up and running.
We are outperforming Germany and most of the Eurozone which are comparable competitors.
Mr Sunak’s careful management of economy has resulted in national insurance coming down and tax cuts on way in Spring Budget.
In addition, due to falling inflation banks have already started a price war over mortgage rates and we expect rates to fall significantly in 2024.
On the other hand, Sir Keir wishes to ban non-dom status for foreign investors to UK.
This would be the single most counter-intuitive measure possible. We obtain 30 per cent of all taxation collected from the top one per cent of wealth creators.
Many British citizens like friends of mine from university who have been very successful created their own companies and employed thousands of people have left the country sighting excessive taxation.
In UAE you only pay nine per cent corporation tax on earnings over £80,000.
Perhaps one of the reasons over 100,000 highly successful Brits have moved to Dubai.
Millions of successful Britons have left all over the world and many more are at the exit door.
Sir Keir’s answer is more taxation.
What Conservatives have proved is that in good times we can do the work required to reduce deficits which in bad times allows us to borrow.
Nigel and Reform Party don’t want you to scratch under the surface of their denigration of Conservatives in case you find the truth.
His actions and those of Mr Tice could lead to a Labour government which will continue to make this country's ability to pay for itself in real peril and disastrous for those who follow us in generations ahead.
Daniel Kawczynski MP
Shrewsbury
