Standing Up for You and Standing Up for Britain

I am proud to say I voted and campaigned to Leave last year – but whatever your view on Brexit, we need a plan to get us through. Both Labour and Conservatives have committed to leaving the EU. Only Theresa May has a plan to make it work, and deliver on the decision we made last year – to take back control of our money, our laws, our borders – and of immigration.

Jeremy Corbyn, and his candidate here, cannot be trusted to deliver Brexit

My main rival here is Jeremy Corbyn’s candidate who campaigned to Remain in the EU (Twitter, 23 June 2016, link), then wanted to keep us in the EU’s single market, which would mean we would still have free movement (Open Britain, 23 January 2017, link) and is now arguing that we should remain in the EU’s Customs Union, which would mean we cannot sign new trade deals and secure more jobs (Daily Express, 18 January 2017, link). She has admitted her reluctance to support the decision to Leave, saying on Twitter ‘You might need to find a way to accept it, doesn’t mean you ever have to agree with it’ (Twitter, 8 January 2017, link). She has even expressed her support for holding another referendum (Twitter, 6 December 2016, link).

This is exactly the kind of behaviour that causes people to lose trust in politics. If she isn’t willing to represent the people here who voted for her in 2015, then people deserve an MP who will fight their corner, and who will see the vote to Leave respected.

I fully support Theresa May’s plan for Brexit

I voted and campaigned to Leave the EU last year. Leaving the EU will allow us to take back control of our own decisions – on our laws, our borders, our money – and importantly, it will allow us to bring immigration back down to sustainable levels within the country, as Theresa May has committed to in our party Manifesto, the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands we have been having to adjust our public services for since Tony Blair signed us up for free movement without restriction.

Difficult negotiations with 27 other countries in Europe, so that we can achieve a good free trade deal and take back control demands strong and stable leadership from our Prime Minister. Theresa May has experience of negotiating for the UK’s interests on the international stage. Theresa May has done this, as Prime Minister now, and before as Home Secretary. She has faced difficult challenges under huge pressure concerning this country’s national and economic security, and she and her team know how to preserve the UK’s negotiating position and act professionally in international talks, even where the other side may be briefing against them (The Sun, 3 May 2017, link). Our Prime Minister is surrounded by a credible team, who are capable of quietly getting the job done, and standing up for our interests as a country against unaccountable politicians in Brussels. Let’s give her the backing she needs to get Brexit through!

With Theresa May as Prime Minister, and the country’s backing behind her, I am confident that we can hammer out a good deal with our European neighbours. And if we can’t, our Prime Minister must have the resolve and confidence to be prepared to walk away. No deal is better than a bad deal, which could hamper us with EU rules on free movement and forbidding trade deals for generations. Jeremy Corbyn and his candidate here simply aren’t willing to listen to you about how bad that deal would be for the North East.

A vote for Theresa May can help us deliver more local jobs through new trade deals and finally let us take back control of immigration, and reduce the rate of migration back to the tens of thousands.

As Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn would be a disaster

This campaign has shown Corbyn and the team around him are utterly incapable of taking on the huge challenges that face our Government in this area. Their policies are nonsensical, their figures don’t add up, and they are in a total shambles. They couldn’t even keep their manifesto from leaking – think about the danger they would pose the country in conducting any set of negotiations.

His team would be utterly dependent upon a coalition of chaos, with Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish separatists demanding independence and the breakup of the UK – not to mention Corbyn’s willingness to sidle up to Gerry Adams and other enemies of the British people – while Tim Farron, Nick Clegg and Tony Blair along with a band of metropolitan Euro-fanatics demanding that the UK still Remain within the EU and its institutions. They will all be trying to scupper Corbyn’s plans at every opportunity, doing all they can to frustrate the decision we made to Leave last year. Jeremy Corbyn has said he is okay with another Scottish referendum, and that he is okay with free movement. He cannot be trusted to stand up for Britain.