Basingstoke: David Cameron visits Labcold in Chineham

The former prime minister visited Labcold, a specialist manufacturer of scientific and medical refrigeration in Chineham, on Tuesday, May 4 with Conservative candidate Maria Miller.

The Gazette spoke to Mr Cameron to discuss the pressing issues for residents in Basingstoke and Deane. 

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Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Are you concerned that the Conservatives could lose their seat in Basingstoke?

Well, obviously I want Maria Miller to win. She's been a first-class member of Parliament. She works incredibly hard for the local area and I'm here supporting her.

It's obviously a difficult election but it's worth fighting for every vote, fighting for every seat and I'm confident that Maria can win.

Are you concerned about her losing the seat, the Conservatives are campaigning hard in the town which previously has been a safe seat.

The reason for campaigning is because ultimately the voters decide who should be the MP but Maria Miller has got a great track record.

She's worked very hard for Basingstoke and the surrounding villages and so I'm out with her saying remember what Maria has done for you and what she'll do in the future and stick with the team that works.

Labour have identified Basingstoke as a battleground for them, does Basingstoke hold the same priority for the Conservatives?

It's a very important seat for us and it's very important to keep good members of Parliament in the House of Commons fighting for local people.

Obviously what we're fighting for is a plan. We're saying we've got inflation down, we've got the economy growing. Here in Basingstoke, a home of brilliant small businesses like the one we're standing in.

There are 8,000 businesses in this town. We've got a very low unemployment rate, well below the national average.

If anything, the problem is making sure we can find enough skilled workers to fill the jobs that are being created.

Basingstoke is a great success story and we want to keep it that way.

There are a lot of businesses in Basingstoke that attract business from other countries, what are your plans to support them?

Our plan, is to back businesses, British businesses that want to expand and want to export. So we've got the super deduction in terms of our corporation tax rate which makes it more attractive to invest in this country if you're a business than probably it's ever been before.

The other thing to do is help businesses like this [Labcold] to export; so we're going around the world doing trade deals.

I've been discussing with the team here; what we're trying to do with the Gulf countries, which are big purchasers of refrigeration systems, what we're doing with India, what we're doing around the world to make sure that Britain's got a trade strategy so companies like this can export and continue to grow.

In Basingstoke, a lot of the hotels in the past couple of years have been occupied by asylum seekers, concerning residents in the town. What are your plans to ensure that the hotels in Basingstoke, going forward, don't continue to become hubs for this?

Well, I think there's only one party at this election that's really got a plan for controlling immigration and that's the Conservative Party and you've seen today we've announced that we're going to put a cap on the number of people coming for economic reasons and also people coming for family reasons and that's the part of immigration that's easiest to control and right to control so that will make a difference.

We've also stopped postgraduate students bringing their families over and that's led to something like a 25 per cent reduction in immigration this year.

But crucially, in terms of people who end up in hotels, we're stopping that anyway, but those tend to be people coming over illegally, and there again, the Conservative Party is the only party with a plan for saying to people coming illegally across the Channel, ‘you won’t be able to stay in Britain’ instead we have the Rwanda plan to make sure their cases can be looked at in a safe third country.

Finally, why do you believe people in Basingstoke should vote Conservative?

Very simply because they’ve got a great local MP in Maria Miller, they’ve got a great track record of her work, and also if you look at the crucial questions for our country, which is economic prosperity and our security, I think the Conservatives are the people with a plan.

A plan to keep the economy growing, to keep jobs being created, to keep the country safe and secure, that’s what matters the most and I think Rishi Sunak has a great track record.

The Basingstoke seat has been held by Conservative Maria Miller since 2005. 

As well as Dame Maria, the other confirmed candidates for the Basingstoke seat are: Luke Murphy (Labour), Richard Whelan (Liberal Democrats) and Michael Howard-Sorrell (Green Party).