Eric Pickles, MP for Brentwood & Ongar and Chairman of the Conservative Party, paid a visit to Lincoln in a bid to promote Karl McCartney’s electoral campaign.
He spoke to Conservative supporters in Castle Square on Monday, May 3rd.
Pickles made a speech to the attendees calling for them to elect McCartney.
“If you don’t elect Karl, David [Cameron] doesn’t make it to number ten, and the entire nation is going to blame you,” Pickles joked.
He told the audience that Britain is “facing an unprecedented crisis” and warned that a hung parliament would result in a delay on tackling it, saying “we need somebody to take strong decisions.”
Pickles also compared Britain’s economic problems to the crisis in Greece, but said “I’m not suggesting for a second that we’re like the Greek economy – we’re much bigger,” despite economists saying that Britain’s crisis is set to become worse than Greece’s.
In an interview with The Linc, Pickles spelled out the importance that winning Lincoln is to the Conservative Party, saying “It’s our 89th target seat. If he [McCartney] doesn’t make it, David [Cameron] doesn’t make it. The people of Lincoln are in an enormously pivotal position.”
He made no promises on what will happen to students under a prospective Conservative government, saying “everyone knows there’s going to be cuts, and they’re going to be pretty substantial cuts. In terms of university funding there’s an [independent review] taking place and we’ll hold fire until [then].”
He also defended the Tory policy to give bonuses to students who are able to pay of their debt quickly, saying it wasn’t an unfair policy because “it will actually release more money for loans – we will be able to pay for the expansion of student numbers by doing this.”