David Cameron vows return to ‘good life’
British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron (left) talks with a local family as he campaigns in Alnwick, north east England on April 13, 2015. PHOTO | PETER MACDIARMID |
What you need to know:
- We can turn the good news in the economy into a good life, he says.
- Right-to-buy scheme will extend home purchase discounts.
LONDON
British Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron launched his party’s manifesto on Tuesday, promising a return to the “good life” and the revival of a housing policy associated with Margaret Thatcher if he wins May’s election.
Mr Cameron announced an extension of the 1980s “right-to-buy” housing policy of Conservative “Iron Lady” Thatcher, revealed plans for free childcare and pledged that minimum-wage workers will pay no income tax.
With opinion polls putting the centre-right Tories neck-and-neck with the opposition Labour Party, he tried to play on Labour’s weak reputation on the economy in a bid to put his side ahead in the last few weeks of campaigning.
“We’re on the brink of something special,” he told activists at a school in Swindon, southwest England. “Let’s not let Labour drag us back to square one.
“We can turn the good news in the economy into a good life for you and your family. Britain can be this buccaneering, world-beating, can-do country again”.
The Conservatives blame Labour for running up a budget deficit of some £90 billion during 13 years in government before they were voted out in 2010 and replaced by a Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition.
Neither main party looks set to win an outright parliamentary majority on May 7, raising the prospect of another coalition or a minority government.
The “right-to-buy” scheme will extend home purchase discounts already enjoyed by some tenants to 1.3 million more tenants of housing associations — private non-profits that provide low-rent accommodation that often receive public subsidy.
