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    Shadow ministers ask voters to join the government

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    A landmark year for law reform

    13th April 2010

    Members of the Conservative party's shadow team have told voters "if we are elected on May 6, you will be in power on May 7".

    At the launch of the party's general election manifesto in London earlier today, David Cameron initially took a back seat as his shadow Cabinet pitched their plans to the people.

    Former leader William Hague admitted that in the past the party was "too narrow" but under David Cameron it has changed "forever".

    He said if elected and appointed as foreign secretary he would intensify friendships between the UK and emerging nations such as Brazil.

    Hague said change "can be the salvation of Britain" and asked voters to join with the Tories.


    "Come and help us change our country," he said, adding that what is needed is strong people as opposed to strong government.

    Shadow chancellor George Osborne criticised Labour for "putting a tax on jobs when the economy is still weak".

    He said more than 100 business leaders, who between them employ more than one million people, "back our plans to cut waste to stop the jobs tax".

    "It is Labour's debt and Labour's waste," he said.

    Osborne said Britain "desperately needs a whole new economic vision" and a clean break from the "debt-fuelled model of the past".

    He said that if elected a Tory government would set out eight "clear benchmarks to judge the economic success" of their policies.

    He said both public sector workers and wealth creators would be asked to help "stop the rise of red tape and simplify the system".

    "Play your part in building the next government."

    Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said Labour is responsible for the "utter scandal" that one in five young people cannot find a job and eight million people of working age are classed as economically inactive.

    She said the Tories would "get Britain working" for the sake of the millions of people on benefits.

    May promised "the most radical shake-up of welfare since it began" under a Tory government.


    Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said Britain is a broken society whose social problems are getting worse and where inequality has widened.

    "David Cameron has made it the mission of this party to mend our broken society," he said.

    The Tories would "patiently and resolutely" tackle social problems if elected, as well as "leading the most radical agenda of school reform in a generation".

    The changes will give children the chance to become the "authors of their own life story".

    And an "army of volunteers" will be recruited to change Britain.

    Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary, said the NHS is a symbol of the country's "sense of duty and fairness and will always be our number one priority for government".

    He said a Tory government would never change the principle of free at the point of use and would scrap targets and give people access to cancer drugs.


    "Doctors and nurses answerable to patients not bureaucrats," he said.


    Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman said the Conservatives will "return parliament to people" if they form the next government.

    She said voters are frustrated by politics "because so many decisions are taken by someone else."

    Spelman promised a "radical redistribution of power from central to local" and said power would be taken away from the "political elite".

    "If we are elected on May 6, you will be in power on May 7," she said.


    Shadow community cohesion minister Baroness Warsi said the Tories had been decisive in tackling the MPs expenses scandal.

    She issued a call for a massive national effort to clean up politics, starting with a cut in the number of MPs and the "perks and subsidies they enjoy".

    Senior Tories such as shadow home secretary Chris Grayling and shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers were not asked to speak at the launch.

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