THE OBSERVER: Tax rises, handouts, law-breaking: what do the Tories stand for now?

Press/Media: Expert comment

Period29 May 2022

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleTax rises, handouts, law-breaking: what do the Tories stand for now?
    Media name/outletThe Observer
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    Date29/05/22
    DescriptionRobert Ford, professor of political science at Manchester University, says the difficulties of serving this coalition help explain some of the discontent: “The ‘red wall’ seats gained in 2019 are deprived places where state intervention is sorely needed and very popular. Local MPs, even if they personally favour low taxes and a small state (and not all of them do), respond to the context they face, and therefore favour the big state interventionism of ‘levelling up’.
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    “But the money for that has to come from somewhere, and as the government faces growing economic pressure, Conservative MPs from wealthier bits of the south of England increasingly worry that ‘levelling up’ ultimately means taking money from their voters and giving it to voters elsewhere.

    “MPs who don’t like big spending on principle like it even less when it is their voters paying the bills but seeing little of the benefit. This, I suspect, is the root cause of some of the disquiet.”
    URLhttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/29/tax-rises-handouts-law-breaking-what-do-the-tories-stand-for-now
    PersonsRobert Ford

Keywords

  • UK politics
  • Conservative Party