Derbyshire Conservatives were delighted to welcome the Prime Minister to Long Eaton on Monday where a meeting took place between candidates for the Derbyshire County elections and David Cameron at the Novotel in Long Eaton.

Councillor Andrew Lewer opened the meeting by underlining local Conservative successes during its last four years in administration, citing in particular that all libraries were kept open and making considerable savings across many services, including youth services, whilst at the same time improving them. A key success was three years of 0% council tax increases to be followed by a fourth if re-elected on May 2nd.

Then Mr Cameron talked about the challenges we still face as a nation thanks to the extraordinary incompetence of the last Labour government, describing the  difficult  state of the economy, with the cost of welfare spiralling and immigration out of control. In spite of that he explained that the deficit  has  been reduced by a third  since 2010 , benefits  have  been capped  so that no household can claim more in benefits than the average family earns by going out to work - a change opposed by Ed Miliband's Labour party - and net immigration  has   been reduced by a third.

The Prime Minister then stayed for a Q&A session on topics that ranged widely from apprenticeships, social care for the elderly and the NHS. He highlighted some key aspects  of the Government's programme to help those that  want to work hard and get on, namely that  people  working full time on  the  minimum wage  have seen their  income tax bill halved under this Government , and by 2015 no  one will pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn. Welcomed by all was his assurance that the Dilnot Report cap, which would be a feature of the Queen’s Speech, on how much the elderly would have to pay for their care in the future would mean that people need not lose their houses.

Finally, Mr Cameron thanked Derbyshire Conservatives for the careful way they had managed the savings they had to make to contribute to getting Britain back on its feet after 13 years of Labour mismanagement nationally and 28 years of hard-left Labour locally.  Mr Cameron then went on to Duresta factory in Long Eaton to talk to workers about training, manufacturing and the economy.