Prior to any General Election, all candidates standing receive many requests to pledge their support for national policy issues. Many of these causes are noble and I will wish to support them.
However, main party candidates at General Elections stand on their party’s manifestos – the programme of policies that the party commits to delivering if they are elected to Government. Additional pledges outside those manifestos are not likely to be adopted as part of a programme for government, so any candidate who signs up for those pledges is most likely to fail to deliver.
In the coming General Election, I will stand on the Conservative Party manifesto. If I made a national policy pledge that was not included in the Conservative Party manifesto, I would not have the power to keep it. Any candidate standing in Wycombe ought to be honest about this when voters ask them to pledge their support on issues not in the manifestos. Indeed, voters are often frustrated when political parties stray outside of their manifesto commitments, so we should be clear about our programme for Government and see it through.
In order to try to accommodate local demand from Conservative voters for particular policy pledges, if I support them I will put them to my ministerial colleagues for consideration for inclusion in the manifesto. Of course, I will set out my priorities locally, most of which would be delivered by our excellent unitary council.
I want to be open, honest and transparent about this: pledges which are not in the Conservative manifesto would not be likely to be kept so I intend not to make them, even as I will listen closely to what is said by local people.
If you would like to get in touch with me, please email: steve.baker.mp@parliament.uk. If you would like my help with a particularly urgent issue, please phone my constituency office on 01494 448408.
