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The will to win
Reporter: BEATRIZ AYALA
Date online: 10 January 2011
ITHE time has come for Oldham to have a Conservative MP, according to Foreign Secretary William Hague during his visit to Saddleworth on Saturday.
The former Conservative party leader visited a bustling Uppermill to show support for candidate Kashif Ali ahead of Thursday’s by-election.
Mr Hague said: “You’ve got a Conservative candidate that was born here, still lives here.
“In a by-election, people are particularly interested in individual candidates.
“I’ve campaigned for a long time for the Conservatives to have more MPs in the North of England.
“We want the Conservative party to be represented in this part of England.”
Speaking to the Chronicle about Mr Ali’s chances of winning Thursday’s poll, he said: “It’s a three-horse race, you only have to look at the result of the last election to see that. Kashif has done really well and we can absolutely win.”
He added that the fact Prime Minister David Cameron had visited Oldham last Thursday, the first time a prime minister had taken part in a by-election campaign in more than a decade, showed the support within the party for Mr Ali. Mr Hague spoke to journalists after meeting supporters in Uppermill Square, and then set off to delivering campaign leaflets to near-by homes.
When asked about Oldham Council cuts, he said: “They will have to make economies — but why?
“Because we have been left with the most difficult financial situation of any government.”
He said Gordon Brown and the Labour party had created a huge budget deficit and the Conservatives would have to rescue the country from that position.
When talking about being part of a coalition Government facing a by-election, he said: “Its not a merger of two parties.
“It’s two parties working together in the national interest.
“Just because we are a coalition today doesn’t mean people should stop voting for the party.”
Mr Hague said the by-election was not a matter of having one less Labour MP but having the best MP possible.
Candidate Kashif Ali said: “It is absolutely fantastic having Mr Hague here, first the Prime Minister and now the Foreign Secretary.
“This is the last weekend push. We can get there.”
Comments
Sorry Minerva but the bulk of the deficit is entirely down to Labour overspending.
Labour failed to regulate the banks.
Moreover, both Australia & Canada went into recession after us and came out of recession before us because their economies were in a better position to deal with the "global economic position". Labour was in favour of a VAT rise to tackle the deficit when in Government but is now opposed.
They have no answers to the economic mess they left. Cynical opportunists!
Banks, economy, deficit etc..
We need to bring our industries BACK to the UK! We need to emply UK people(s). The UK peoples need to realise that the roase bed has thornes and they do prick now and again, right now a lot!
Wake up people, The government we got is what we voted for, You want it chaged? Then demand a vote of no-confidence, and get them out and get people in who'll do the job and WHO WILL listen to their voters.
THAT IS WHAT IS MISSING HERE - NO-ONE LISTENS TO US VOTERS ANYMORE!
Have Your Say
Mr. Hague must know that a good part of the deficit is the result of recapitalising the banks. They needed the money because they had compromised their role as retail banks, looking after our money, by recklessing playing the investment markets. It was under Mrs. Thatcher that they were freed to do this. They should have been prevented from doing so long ago. The blame does not fall on one party alone. This is cynical politics.
By Minerva @ 10/01/2011 17:07:32