Date: 28th March 2006
Released by: ANDREW TURNER

The battle for the Labour leadership could lead to a premature General Election, according to Island MP, Andrew Turner.

Speaking to the Isle of Wight Conservative Association’s Annual General Meeting at the Riverside Centre, Mr Turner said that, although Tony Blair has in theory four years to go as Prime Minister, many Labour MPs no longer backed him and were itching for Gordon Brown to take over.

“Whether there is then a General Election depends on Mr Brown’s vanity,” he said.

“If he thinks that he can improve an economy that is now on the slide, he will serve till 2010. If he thinks things can only get worse, he will call a ‘honeymoon’ election, before anyone has time to realise what a Brown government really means.

“If last week’s budget is anything to go by, it will be about extra spending on public services which doesn’t find its way through to front-line staff – more taxpayers’ money spent on health and education, but the benefits not being felt on the Island. It will put more burdens on business, with fewer jobs in manufacturing, and new jobs paid for by the taxpayer. It will be about people paying income tax and receiving tax credit at the same time – an absurd merry-go-round of money which does no-one any good and costs a fortune in administration. And it will be about destroying people’s pensions by his £5 billion-a-year tax on pension funds, while saying to elderly people, ‘We’ll help you if you’re in need.’

“Doesn’t he realise that the reason people save, the reason people buy their homes, is so that they will retain their independence in old age? That’s how Conservatives are different – we believe in helping those who fall on hard times, but not in destroying the incentive to save so that more people have to beg for a handout.”

END

Contact: Andrew Turner 01983 530808