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Vote Conservative for an independent, prosperous Britain

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during an election campaign event in Doncaster on June 2, 2017.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during an election campaign event in Doncaster on June 2, 2017. Credit: SCOTT HEPPELL 

This is the most important general election for a generation, a moment that rivals the referendum in terms of historic and global significance. Last year, the people voted to leave the EU in an awe-inspiring display of democratic power. This election is about implementing that decision, and the choice is remarkably simple.

Only Theresa May has the attitude and the experience necessary to get the job done – and to get it done in the cleanest, most comprehensive way. Jeremy Corbyn is not only incompetent and wrongheaded but dangerous.

Brexit represents a rupture from a failed policy consensus going back to the Fifties, when the establishment first decided to tie Britain’s fortunes to the continent. Mrs May campaigned against that rupture during the referendum. But in an admirably democratic spirit, she saw the light, embraced – not merely acknowledged – the will of the people and committed herself to implementing it fully. Others might have fudged the issue. Not her. “Brexit means Brexit,” Mrs May said.

Under her leadership the Tories, once divided over Europe, are now the only serious vehicle for extracting Britain from the EU. The opportunities are there to be seized: control over our own laws, control over the borders, a free-trade agreement with the EU, trade and investment with the wider world – and, in time, a regeneration of Britain’s institutions and a reassertion of our capitalist economic system.

Jeremy Corbyn, by contrast, cannot be trusted as the custodian of the ambitions unleashed by Brexit. Has he the capacity to lead complex negotiations? No. His leadership skills are so lacking that he does not even command the loyalty or respect of his own MPs. His party is actually largely opposed to Brexit and could well dilute it out of all significance. Mr Corbyn himself has ruled out walking away without a deal, which means the EU states know he is obliged to accept whatever compromise they offer him, such as a mammoth divorce bill, a commitment to keep taxes high or an assault on Britain’s financial sector.

Mr Corbyn, of course, does not care much for the future of capitalism – for there is a second fundamental issue at stake in this election. Labour’s leader is a Marxist in cultural, economic and foreign policy terms. This makes him totally unsuitable to be prime minister. He has opposed every piece of counter-terrorism legislation. He has shared platforms with members of the IRA. He has had to apologise for calling Hamas and Hizbollah “friends.” He cannot hide his contempt for Israel and has failed to root out anti-Semitism in his party. He dubbed the killing of Osama bin Laden a “tragedy”. There have been only two Western interventions since the Second World War that he felt able to endorse: East Timor and Cyprus. He described the Falklands War, fought in defence of British subjects and against the aggression of a foreign power, as a “Tory plot”.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has a drink between media interviews as the Labour Party launch their General Election campaign at Event City on May 9, 2017 in Manchester, England
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has a drink between media interviews as the Labour Party launch their General Election campaign at Event City on May 9, 2017 in Manchester, England Credit: Anthony Devlin 

To say that Mr Corbyn would also ruin the country’s economy is a massive understatement. He wants crippling increases in income tax, corporation tax and inheritance tax, and has openly pledged to consider imposing a revolutionary property and garden tax on British homeowners, businesses and farmers. He would slap a financial transactions tax on the City so extreme that even the EU hasn’t done it. Put together, these would amount to the greatest increase in taxation in peace time. They would destroy incentives to work and invest in the UK. Most devastatingly of all, they would bankrupt hundreds of thousands of homeowners, especially pensioners, and force even greater numbers to sell up. The economy would tank.

Borrowing and spending would zoom up – often on inessential welfare bribes to the electorate – and key utilities would be nationalised. Think of it as Cuba, if not Venezuela, without the sunshine. History is littered with examples of human misery created by this socialist doctrine.

Theresa May, U.K. prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, talks to a dog and its owners as she canvasses a street in Southampton U.K., on Thursday May 11, 2017. 
Theresa May, U.K. prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, talks to a dog and its owners as she canvasses a street in Southampton U.K., on Thursday May 11, 2017.  Credit: Simon Dawson 

There is an alternative: a Tory government with a majority healthy enough to fulfil the promise of Brexit and to build a better, freer country.

Encouragingly, Mrs May has spoken of a post-Brexit “Global Britain” that competes in international markets. It is unfortunately accurate that the Prime Minister has been lukewarm in her embrace of free markets more generally. But a small-government, pro-capitalist agenda will not truly be possible until Britain leaves the EU. So, for the time being, the only thing that matters is a united and strong Tory government that can take on the Brussels negotiators and deliver a proper Brexit. Led by Mrs May, the country would be in safe hands.

Everyone who believes in an independent, democratic and prosperous Britain should vote Conservative on June 8.

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