It was a packed venue at the Foresters Arms in Egham where local Conservative members and supporters were joined by the Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade Andrew Griffith MP, on Friday 24th January.
Andrew has a strong business CV, having been chief operating officer for Sky plc, at one time the UK’s youngest chief finance officer of a FTSE 100 company. He was ‘Non-Executive Director of the Year’ in 2018 and set up the Bolder Academy free school in Hounslow, before joining Parliament in 2019 as the MP for Arundel and South Downs.
Andrew spoke warmly about our Runnymede & Weybridge MP Dr Ben Spencer: “With his experience and medical training he is one of few colleagues who, when he speaks, the house listens,” he said.
He also provided an excoriating critique of the first six months of the Labour government where we have seen a Foreign Secretary “trying to pay a foreign country to take British territory”, a Home Secretary who has “not stopped the gangs but has released hardened criminals” and an Agriculture Secretary who introduced the family farms tax despite claiming there were no plans to do so before the election.
On the economy, he added: “Most of the metrics they inherited were going in the right direction. Now unemployment is up, consumer confidence is falling, interest rates are up, inflation is up, the metrics going in the wrong direction.”
Labour’s National Insurance hike, the family business death tax, dis-incentivising savers by taxing pensions, and driving out 11,000 nom-doms (equivalent to 500,000 taxpayers) was a disastrous way of raising money, Andrew said.
Among Conservatives’ top priorities at the next election will be economic growth (unleashing sectors in which the UK excels, like AI, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, space sector, creative industries) a slimmer state, deregulation and restoring the accountability of quangos.
Conservatives are the "most successful historically political party" and we have a great deal of work to do rebuilding our base in local government, building our centre and associations, reformulating policy and getting back to a position of trust with the British public, Andrew said.
There were lots of audience questions and we were particularly pleased to welcome supporters from Royal Holloway University as well as many new members, long standing members and our councillors.
RWCA will have further events with guest speakers in March and April so keep an eye on our website and communications for announcements.