Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Message to Conservative candidate in Pontefract and Castleford by-election

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Source: Thatcher Archive: CCOPR 1347/78
Editorial comments: Marked for immediate release. The Conservative candidate was Hugo Page.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 176

The Constituency of Pontefract and Castleford can give the country a lead on October 26th. A large Conservative vote will give notice to the Government that we cannot afford another year of damaging uncertainty; and will emphasise that Labour's policies of higher taxation, more State control and less personal responsibility are the opposite of what people really want.

Your Campaign reflects the needs and aspirations of people all over Britain—to have a good job, to be paid according to how hard they work and how much skill they have acquired, to keep more of what they earn, and to live in their own home in peace and safety.

Only last year, in the mining constituency of Ashfield, a Labour majority of 23,000 was overturned. There, the voters realised that it was only the Conservative Party which was offering them practical policies based on commonsense and realism—that a Labour Britain was not the kind of country they wanted their children and grandchildren to live in. You are spreading the same message at Pontefract and Castleford—I wish you the same success.