By ten o’clock tomorrow night, Britain’s fate will be sealed. By Friday, you will either have me as prime minister or Ed Miliband. From that choice flow two completely different directions for Britain’s — and your family’s — future.
I’m asking for five more years to finish the job we have started. I’m asking for five more years to secure our economy, so we get more people into work, more young people getting trained rather than sitting on the dole, more couples into homes of their own, more pensioners feeling security and dignity in old age.
The long-term plan we have been seeing through is improving lives. The world looks at us today and is impressed at the progress we have made together — from an economy teetering on the brink to last year the fastest growing major economy in the developed world. Two million more jobs; a thousand people striding into a new job every single day we’ve been in office.
These are the indisputable facts. Am I saying everything’s fine now? Absolutely not. There is so much more we need to do. I am determined to get back to my desk so from day one we can start cutting the taxes of 30 million working people, taking the lowest paid out of tax, funding three million more apprenticeships, building 200,000 more homes for young people, putting more money and more doctors and nurses into our NHS.
That’s why I have been to every corner of our country making the case — to see this job through and save our country. Because the alternative Britain could begin on Friday, with Ed Miliband in No 10.
Over the past five years I have faced him over the despatch box at PMQs on a Wednesday. And as our economy has grown, as jobs have been created, he has had nothing to say. Our remarkable national turnaround doesn’t fit his narrative. He thought our economy would go into a triple-dip recession — but our economic growth has exceeded expectations. He thought we would lose a million jobs — we’ve created a million jobs. He was wrong time and again. When I hear him attack this government and what we’re doing to fix the mess Labour left, it brings to mind an image of a firefighter putting out a blaze, with the arsonist who started it standing next to him and criticising the job he’s doing.
Because the fact is, Labour helped to break our economy and they would do the same all over again. Their plans do not add up. They want to borrow more money than we can afford. They want to tax more and would reach into your pockets to do it — not just the super rich, that won’t cover it — but your family’s hard-earned money. And they want to pile up more debt than our children and grandchildren could ever hope to repay.
And with Miliband being propped up by the SNP — as is inevitable, whatever he says — we would be looking at complete and utter chaos in government, with the SNP holding the government to ransom every time there is a vote in the Commons — demanding more borrowing and higher taxes to pay for more welfare.
That is the simple, inescapable choice tomorrow: me leading a strong and stable government, or with Ed Miliband, the chaos of being held to ransom by the SNP.
Your vote can and will make a difference at this election. It’s that close. There is no room for protest voting, or voting for marginal parties — unless you are happy to get Ed Miliband in No 10. All the numbers show it: a vote for Ukip is a vote for Ed Miliband. A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Ed Miliband. A vote for anyone apart from the Conservatives risks Britain and its economic recovery grinding to a halt. So when you are standing in the polling booth tomorrow, ask yourself this question: who will take our country in the right direction long-term: the people who helped mend our economy, or the people who helped to break our economy?
Britain’s future is on a knife-edge. It would be a tragedy if we threw away all the hard work of the past five years and went back to square one. Together we can keep strengthening our economy, creating more jobs, investing in our health service, giving more young people a chance to get on in life. All this is within our grasp. We are on the brink of something truly special in our country.
The future can be brighter but only if we stick to the plan, and only if Britain votes Conservative.
David Cameron can be followed with the Twitter handle @David_Cameron.
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Proof our long-term plan is working and we should stay on the road to a brighter future: UK services growth hit an 8-month high in April.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 6, 2015
