South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes on Liz Truss and her priorities as new Prime Minister
In his latest Hayes in the House column, our MP discusses what awaits the new Prime Minister and explains why she deserves our support...
As Liz Truss, chosen to lead her party and mine, is appointed by Her Majesty The Queen as the 15th Prime Minister of the reign, she becomes paras inter pares - first among equals.
This immense responsibility has at its heart the first duty of Government, to defend the realm from domestic and foreign dangers. Much of our material prosperity is now threatened by external forces which are undermining Britain’s internal foundations in a way that requires exceptional leadership from our new PM.
The issue of energy security is just one aspect of national resilience, the need for which has never been clearer, as dysfunctional supply-chains - breeding energy and food insecurity - have been exposed.
Although not ending all woes, the windfall tax on energy companies, which I championed, will go some way to funding the £37billion committed to help families in these trying times. The new Prime Minister’s commitment to maintain this fair tax on corporate giants and her pledge to pursue new forms of direct support is reassuring, for it is right to reignite the Government’s duty of care.
That it has taken a crisis to turn attention to the importance of local production, nourished by domestic control, reveals a lack of clear thinking by generations of globalist ‘free traders’. Sadly, this emphasis on national economic security did not come in time to save those elements of British manufacturing which moved abroad, or to build the nuclear capacity which might have powered much of the energy grid, or indeed to prevent British food self-sufficiency falling to 60%.
The very best time to implement a substantial industrial and agricultural strategy sufficient to defend self-sufficiency, prosperity and protection was decades ago. Nevertheless, the need remains and necessity fuels invention.
Amongst the most disturbing aspects of globalisation is mass migration. More than 27,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel so far in 2022, and without action this year will mark another record for crossings. Processing migrants offshore is part of the solution, which is why the plan to do so in Rwanda is right.
Ensuring the policy is implemented in the face of outrageous intrusions by foreign judges will require determined conviction from the new Prime Minister and her Home Secretary. She must heed the lessons from Australia, where irregular illegal maritime migration was largely thwarted through processing claims outside the country. Our security demands nothing less than taking back control of the nation’s borders.
Misplaced priorities and misdirected resources are products of a skewed view of what matters. Nowhere is this distortion more obvious than with those police bosses, blinded by political posturing, who can no longer see the need for everyday practical policing, frustrating the frontline police men & women, like those here in South Lincolnshire, who work tirelessly to keep us safe.
The demand from Government to police chiefs to stop wasting time and resources on ‘woke’ virtue signalling, and start solving crimes is welcome. The fact that not a single burglary has been solved in nearly half of English neighbourhoods over the last three years shows that, in too many places, neighbourhood policing is neglected. To restore faith in justice, Liz Truss and the new Home Secretary must back police officers by refocusing efforts on patrols and prosecutions.
Such ‘woke’ poison has seeped into far more than just policing, as extremists indoctrinate children in too many urban primary schools, university idealogues ‘decolonise’ our culture, and many once philanthropic institutions distort our history. Insidious ‘woke’ ideology blights our society, it’s time that all arms of Government were alive to this threat, challenging and chastising the subversive revisionists.
Liz Truss is the inheritor of both the 2019 Conservative manifesto and a substantial Commons majority, but she also faces a world in crisis. Against a backdrop of global problems, the new Prime Minister deserves goodwill, encouragement and support. She will certainly have mine.