MEDIA
EXPRESS | 17/05/20
UK universities face backlash from students forced to pay tuition fees despite pandemic
The issue has been raised in the latest Blue Collar Conservative podcast with former cabinet minister Esther McVey who has demanded that universities are held account for failing students, many of who pay £9,000 a year in tuition fees. During the podcast students described how universities had failed to provide online lectures, seminars or one to one tutorials, while access to reading materials was completely blocked because resources were not online.
EXPRESS | 17/05/20
“WE NEED THEM MORE THAN EVER”
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been warned that he should not try to bring in further cuts to the military in a bid to help pay the coronavirus national debt. Among the tasks carried out by the armed forces have been increasing the amount of testing, delivering of protective equipment and building the Nightingale Field Hospitals.
EXPRESS | 10/05/20
HSB NOT HS2
Pressure is mounting on the government to ditch the £100 billion HS2 project and invest the money in high speed broadband in the wake of social changes brought about by the coronavirus. In her latest Blue Collar podcast, Esther McVey ran a series of interviews highlighting the problem of “internet poverty” in Britain and a change in working practice brought about by coronavirus where people are more likely to work from home in the long term.
EXPRESS | 03/05/20
END OF CHINATOWN: Fears for Britain's historic Asian-focused streets over coronavirus
Ching He Huang, who regularly appears on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and has written six books on Chinese cuisine, has warned that the impact of the disease could be the final straw which ends the the Chinatowns in London, Manchester, Liverpool and other cities. Speaking on the Blue Collar Conservative podcast with former cabinet minister Esther McVey, Ms Huang said that ministers need to connect to the British Chinese community or risk leaving a cultural black hole.
EXPRESS | 26/04/20
TIME TO REOPEN NURSERIES
Reopening nurseries must be a priority to ensure children's development is not damaged, according to the former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey. Talking on the new Blue collar podcast, The former Tory leadership contender is worried about the harm the lockdown may be having on the mental health of children and fears we are raising "Generation Covid-19".
EXPRESS | 18/04/20
Rishi Sunak told to abolish business rates in desperate plea to save UK high streets
THE GOVERNMENT needs to abolish business rates for high streets and pubs permanently to save them in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, a former cabinet minister has demanded. The issue came up in the latest Blue Collar podcast aimed at “bringing people together” during the crisis and raising issues which are hitting working class communities across the country.
EXPRESS | 05/04/20
Starmer represents London centric Labour which turned UK BLUE, writes ESTHER McVEY
I would like to congratulate Sir Keir Starmer on his decisive victory. What can we expect? Will his leadership mark a radical departure? his election shows that Labour is still wedded to everything that led working-class voters to desert them. Just like Corbyn, he represents the London-centric Labour Party which helped to turn much of the North blue at the last election.
PODCAST | 03/04/20
NEW: BLUE COLLAR CONVERSATIONS PODCAST
We’ve moved from the pub to the podcast! And like our country wide pub events, these podcasts act as a space to discuss ideas that champion working people. In this podcast series, we will talk to staff and business owners, bringing their voice to the fore, discussing their concerns, aligning the needs of staff to the vision of the business owner, asking: will we recover from this pandemic and what will the recovery look like? What will be the impact on staff and workers and what does the future world of work look like?
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: https://bluecollar.buzzsprout.com
CHAD | 05/03/20
Home Secretary praises BCC for Police Covenant campaign
Priti said: "MPs have been hearing from our hard-working constituents about their concerns on crime for a long time. That’s why last year I promised, alongside the Prime Minister, that our party would take its rightful place as the Party of Law and Order in Britain once again.”
EXPRESS | 26/02/20
Don’t do it! BCC MPs urge new Chancellor not to commit major own goal
Rishi Sunak has been warned against "clobbering" voters with fuel duty hikes in next month's Budget by a group of Tory MPs.
FT | 25/02/20
‘Blue collar’ Tory MPs call for Budget freeze on fuel duty
A prominent group of Conservative MPs representing traditionally Labour-held seats in the north of England, the Midlands and Wales have called on Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to avoid increasing fuel duty in next month’s Budget.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://www.ft.com/content/db122c0e-57d5-11ea-a528-dd0f971febbc
ESTHER MCVEY mp | TELEGRAPH | 17/12/19
Tory electoral triumph has unleashed blue collar conservatism
British politics has been through one of its most difficult periods. The political establishment clashed with the people and the people won.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/16/tory-electoral-triumph-has-unleashed-blue-collar-conservatism
DAVID DAVIS mp | CONSERVATIVE HOME | 16/12/19
How to keep the new working class voters we won last Thursday – and win even more
Blue collar Conservatism has a proven track record – one we should resurrect. In this new political battle, the greatest tension will not be left versus right or even fiscal and monetary doves versus economic hawks. It will be a battle between creativity and convention.
DEHENNA DAVISON mp | SUN ON SUNDAY | 15/12/19
We have to reward our new voters and make blue collar the new Tory buzzword
“I have lost count of how many metropolitan lefties have told me ‘Tories will never win in the North East’. Well we didn’t just win, we completely bulldozed that red wall in the style of Boris in his ‘Get Brexit Done’ JCB.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10554617/reward-new-voters-blue-collar/
Peter Gibson MP | SUNDAY TELEGRAPH | 15/12/19
The media were shocked to see me win, but this had been on the cards for a long time
“This was a blue collar conservatism election built on the promise to get a job done and crack on with sensible investments in public services. And I’m blue collar through and through.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/15/media-shocked-see-win-had-cards-long-time
Esther mcvey mp | SUNDAY EXPRESS | 15/12/19
Blue collar Conservatives neglected by Corbyn have SHAKEN UK politics
“Working class votes won this election. After years of struggling along, finally we have the numbers in Parliament to deliver the people’s priorities. No more excuses. We have in Boris a leader we can unite around and deliver with.”
DAVID MADDOX | sunday express | 15/12/19
Boris Johnson’s NHS PLEDGE: I’ll make it law to protect health service
“Much of the behind-the-scenes credit for the triumph in Labour heartlands has gone to Tatton MP Esther McVey, who founded the Blue Collar Conservatism campaign earlier this year. She and activists from the movement toured the country supporting candidates in Labour seats. Ben Bradley, who surprisingly won Mansfield in 2017, took 64 per cent of the vote there last week. He said: “The blue collar group will be very influential in the way things move forward.”
| unherd | 13/12/19
How Boris can cement his new coalition?
“The new generation of Tory MP, such as Eddie Hughes the working-class Birmingham man who won Walsall North for the Tories in 2017, do not have a noblesse oblige interest in decent public services for the masses because they have spent their lives depending on them.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://unherd.com/2019/12/how-boris-can-cement-his-new-coalition/
FRASER NELSON | TELEGRAPH | 13/12/19
This was a victory for blue-collar conservatism. How Boris Johnson reshaped his party
“The new Toryism is a blue-collar Toryism. The focus will be on a high-skilled, high-waged workforce – and if that means the Government setting the salary for a quarter of the country’s workers via the highest minimum wage in Europe, so be it.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/24/pm-gambling-electoral-power-new-blue-collar-toryism/
SASCHA O’SULLIVAN | SUN | 10/12/19
NO LOVE: Why the Tories are now the party of the working class – who are set to back Boris Johnson on Thursday
“Esther McVey, said the modern incarnation of the Labour party has become too detached from the working class. She told The Sun Online: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell's Labour is nothing at all like the Labour (working class voters) grew up with. They wouldn't understand the concerns of a Labour voter if they fell over one in the street," she said. People understand if (a policy) sounds too good to be true, it invariably is, if people are doing a four day week they know it ultimately can't work out like that. Labour is detached from reality. They are a metropolitan elite that is just detached from the day-to-day life of regular working people. They are not talking about things which resonate or relate or ordinary people.’”
david williamson | Sunday Express | 01/12/19
Tories strike a chord with working man
“The father of three liked the blue-collar vision put forward by Ed Barker and Esther McVey. ‘They are the only ones who are in touch with the working man,’ he said.”
ARCHIVE
GOVERNMENT BACKS OUR POLICE COVENANT CAMPAIGN
We’re delighted Home Secretary Sajid Javid is introducing a Police Covenant after our hard fought campaign and that ministers are already pursuing a Blue Collar Conservatism agenda!
19 July 2019
POLICE BACK OUR POLICE COVENANT CAMPAIGN
BCC has won the backing of the Police Federation for their campaign for a new legal guarantee of national care and support for officers in the fight against crime.
1 July 2019
WE TORIES ARE THE NATURAL PARTY OF WORKING CLASSES
The dire local election results show how far we have become detached from our supporters – largely but not solely due to our failure to deliver Brexit. They showed too how Labour have abandoned their traditional working-class voters, particularly in the North.
5 May 2019
BLUE COLLAR CONSERVATISM LAUNCH
Blue Collar Conservatism is about making a breakthrough by showing that we’re on the side of the voters that need us most and who ultimately will determine whether or not we will be forming the next government.
1 April 2019
BLUE COLLAR CONSERVATISM RE-LAUNCH GETS BIG SUPPORT
“The group will launch a social media campaign appealing to the public for policy ideas and has already attracted support from up to 100 MPs, including the International Trade Secretary and the families minister.”
31 March 2019