Sir Bill Cash – Conservative Party Candidate – GE2019

Sir Bill Cash, Conservative Party Candidate for the Stone Constituency, has sent through his candidate profile and questionnaire responses.

All four Stone constituency parliamentary candidates have been asked to prepare a candidate profile and to provide responses to a number of questions that we sent to them all.

All responses are unedited and therefore are the candidate’s own words

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Sir Bill Cash – Conservative Party

A Personal Statement (who you are, your link to Stone, relevant experience to being our MP and why you’re standing to be an MP)

I am Sir Bill Cash.  I became the MP for Stone in 1997 and have represented the area ever since.  I had been the MP for Stafford from 1984-97, which itself then included much of the present Stone constituency.  I am standing again to be MP for Stone because I am devoted to the constituents in this area, from all walks of life, young and elderly, town and country, businesses and farmers and professionals alike, fighting local and national campaigns, irrespective of party and in the national interest of the UK.  I have been consistent and independent-minded.

Do you live within the Stone Constituency?

I live – as I have always lived – within 20 miles of the constituency boundary.

Why have you specifically chosen to stand in the Stone Constituency?

Because I have been the MP since 1997 and I am devoted to the constituency.

How long have you been affiliated with the party that you’re standing for?

For decades and no other.

The geographical area of the Stone Constituency is quite extensive, how do you ensure that you can keep in touch with the issues affecting all of the individual towns and villages that are contained within the boundary?

I have always kept in touch with the issues in the towns and villages in the Stone constituency by engaging with constituents and councillors, travelling, surgeries, meetings and correspondence – with thousands of letters / emails every year.

The town of Stone has seen rapid growth in recent years with a number of new housing estates.  What would you do to ensure that the town’s infrastructure and services are also expanded to absorb the additional headcount?

I have always campaigned for proper and effective infrastructure and services and will continue to do so, in line with the recent growth and expansion of Stone.  This covers severe traffic congestion and adjustment of traffic lights, freer car parking and improving roads, flood prevention, waste disposal, postal services, schools, GP, dental and health facilities, policing, water, energy and broadband / telecommunications.

Stone High Street, like many across the UK, is finding trading difficult.  What are the key areas that you think need tackling to stimulate the High Street considering the needs of consumers, business owners and attracting new investment?

New investments and stimulating the High Street will require less traffic congestion and freer car parking and improvement for public transport, lower business rates, development of heritage and tourism, including the development of the Crown Wharf by Joule’s Brewery and the canal area.  I have held meetings with local traders and local councillors to improve business and tourism opportunities.  Successfully campaigned for Stone station to reopen – now with remarkable growth in annual passenger footfall figures, more than doubling from 48,000 in 2009/10 to 108,900 in 2015/16.  In 2018, Stone station had 13.9 per cent more passengers starting or ending their journey there since the previous year – the biggest increase in Staffordshire.  I regular meet with farmers and recognise the importance of their contribution to the local community.

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When you talk about the town of Stone to people what type of statements (positive or critical) do you make?

I tell people what a wonderful, positive community spirit there is here, with a profound sense of voluntary service.  The people in the Stone constituency are thoroughly down to earth and have a very strong sense of local and national commitment.

HS2 will run close to Stone, with a railhead being built in Yarnfield, what’s your position on the HS2 project and will it benefit Stone?

I am totally opposed to the HS2 project, voting against it at every opportunity in the House of Commons from its inception.  I have worked very closely with the excellent local opponents of the scheme in Yarnfield, Swynnerton and in the locality of Stone and throughout the length of HS2 in the Stone constituency.  I do not believe it will benefit Stone and have denounced it repeatedly in the House of Commons.  It has a vastly overblown budget which has doubled its cost already and is a white elephant.  I represented the constituents of Stone and assisted them with their petitions against the proposals and appeared in Parliament on their behalf.  I have continuously challenged Ministers and Shadow Ministers of all parties and who have all wrongly supported HS2.

What’s your personal opinion on Brexit and is it aligned with your party?

As is well known, I am strongly in favour of Brexit, as is the Conservative Party.  I strongly supported the EU referendum and have campaigned on this matter and the sovereignty of the UK Parliament for decades and also for the self-government of the UK.  It is in our interests to be democratically self-governing and not to be governed by the majority voting of other members states / countries behind closed doors in the Council of Ministers – without even a transcript, as we have in Hansard at Westminster – and is imposed as law upon us under the European Communities Act 1972, which the Conservative Party voted to repeal in the Withdrawal Act 2018, but which Labour and the Lib Dems voted against.

If the UK is unable to conclude a trade deal with the EU by the end of any transition period do you support us leaving the EU with No Deal?

I prefer a trade deal with the EU and believe we will obtain one, the EU having already offered the UK a free trade agreement.  It is in their interests as well as our own.  We already have trading arrangements with them and corresponding standards.

Do you support a second referendum now that the electorate have the details of an agreed deal vs the status quo?

I certainly do not support a second referendum, which would create more uncertainly and undermine the democratic decision that has already been taken both by the electorate and in Parliament.  This was done by a successive of Acts of Parliament since June 2016, such as the Withdrawal Act 2018, which was opposed by Labour, the Lib Dems and others.  The referendum was enacted by MPs by 6-1 in the House of Commons, who deliberately gave the decision to the British people and not to themselves.

Brexit has been divisive and without a time machine how would you unite the country going forward?

The democratic decision for Brexit on 23 June 2016 was not accepted by Remainers in the House of Commons.  They defied the result of the referendum and even their own votes on Acts of Parliament.  Brexit is a matter of democracy, self-government and sovereignty, which is embedded by the referendum itself and the Acts of Parliament which followed.  Voting for the Conservative Party to have a good majority will prevent uncertainty and undermine the undemocratic behaviour of those trying to undermine the democratic result of the referendum.  Acceptance of the democratic decision of the people and Parliament is the best way to unite the country.

If you were elected what would be the top five areas that you’d be trying to change?

1. To ensure that our democracy respects the decisions of the British people and Parliament.
2. To continue to improve the conditions for the elderly, infirm and disabled people from all walks of life.
3. To strive to always improve business opportunities, investments, infrastructure and public services (not HS2) – every penny of which is paid for by reasonable taxation. This is a practical way of improving conditions for everyone.
4. To keep health, education, law and order and the cutting of crime and sound, properly financed defence at the top of our priorities.
5. To ensure that we continue to adopt a responsible attitude towards international matters. This include climate change, encouraging the UK to be the global leader in cutting harmful emissions as soon as reasonably possible; opposing plastic waste in the oceans and elsewhere; and, developing practical and new renewable technologies, including off-shore wind turbines (but not on land in the constituency). This is an important global issue, as is my acclaimed International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014, which I drafted, promoted and successfully campaigned for – supported by leading women campaigners from right, left and centre and across all parliamentary parties and internationally – to impose on Government a legal duty on the £13 billion we provide in international aid to protect young girls and women from e.g. violence, FGM, and forced marriages and to promote their interests.

Any closing statement about why people should vote for you.

I hope that people, having regard to my record and service in the past, will vote for me because I have been devoted to the interests of the Stone constituency and people from all walks of life and for our great country and internationally.  I have been independent minded and consistent in insisting on our democracy and self-government and that we should leave the EU whilst cooperating and trading globally with other countries across the world.

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