Exclusive: Prime Minister Says: ‘There’s a Clear Choice for Guildford Voters at Next Election.’

Published on: 30 Nov, 2023
Updated on: 2 Dec, 2023

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Prime Minster Rushi Sunak told The Guildford Dragon NEWS this morning, in an exclusive interview, that there will be a clear choice at the next general election for those wishing to preserve the green belt and that was to vote Conservative. His party would not impose top-down housing targets.

He set out his party’s position in an exclusive five-minute interview with Dragon editor Martin Giles this morning. The PM was with Guildford’s MP Angela Richardson at the University of Surrey’s School of Medicine to acknowledge a successful accomplishment in reaching a target for the number of nurses being recruited and trained.

See also: Local Politicians Comment on PM’s Dragon Interview

Please read the full exclusive interview here…

Q. Welcome to Guildford, Prime Minister. I know you’ve previously visited Worplesdon within the borough, but is this your first visit to the town itself?

PM: I’m trying to think. Yes, I think it might be since I have been Prime Minister. But I grew up in Southampton so I think I have visited before.

The PM said: “I’m here to recognise the fact that today the government’s delivered on its manifesto promise to recruit and retain an extra 50,000 nurses for our NHS.”

Q. You’re here to celebrate the successful recruitment of more registered nurses. Which everyone would accept is good news, but a major concern in many parts of Guildford is the time it takes to see a GP. What is the government doing to tackle that issue, which has been a growing problem for some years?

PM: I absolutely understand how important this is not least because my dad was a GP. My mum was a pharmacist. So I grew up understanding how important primary care is to people and what difference to their lives it makes. I’ve worked for my mom for a long time as well.

A couple of things we are doing that will make a real difference in our primary care recovery plan that we announced earlier. First of all, we’re providing funding to GP practices to move them on to advanced telephony systems. So that we can end this issue where you call first thing in the morning and you just hear an engaged tone and there’s no one there to actually pick up your call.

There are too many practices that are still on old phone systems that can’t handle all of the calls properly. So we’re just giving GPs the money to upgrade their system so that everyone can actually be listened to and helped.

We already do have goals in place to make sure that everyone who needs to see a GP can see them as quickly as possible.

We are also making sure that people can access more of their information records and things online through their app and on the website. Because a lot of what people are calling about or need to see is to get something from the practice which actually we can do through technology now much easier. We’re rolling that out too.

And then the third thing we’re doing is making sure that you can go to your pharmacist for more things, whether it’s blood pressure checks, oral contraceptives, or this winter, we’re rolling out for seven common ailments things like sore throats, earaches, sinusitis, UTIs [urinary tract infections]. You’ll be able to go and get the medicines for those from your pharmacist directly without needing to see your GP. Those are the common things that people are often needing to see their GP about.

We already do have goals in place to make sure that everyone who needs to see a GP can see them as quickly as possible. We’re actually just about to get another round of public figures.

After the exclusive Dragon interview, the Prime Minister was interviewed by other local journalists.

Q. Thousands of voters in Guildford elections have stopped supporting the Conservative Party, largely because of a Conservative-led Local Plan, adopted in 2019. Additionally, local council decisions, sometimes unanimous, have been overridden by planning inspectors with no connection to Guildford, in the South East of England, one of the most densely populated regions of Europe. Why should Guildford voters concerned about the preservation of the green belt and the amount of ongoing development trust the Conservatives on planning?

PM: It’s very simple. There’s a clear choice for Guildford voters at the next election. When it comes to planning and protecting your green spaces, I have been crystal clear that we believe in protecting people’s green spaces, we will not impose top-down housing targets on areas like Guildford, it’s something Angela has been very passionately campaigning for in Parliament, and rightly so, and this government has delivered. We have a brownfield-first approach to planning, densifying where it makes sense in our urban areas, making sure we build is beautiful, but absolutely not forcing large numbers of homes against their will particularly when they concrete over precious bits of our countryside and our green spaces.

There’s a clear choice for Guildford voters at the next election.

Now the Labour party’s policy is the opposite of that. They will impose top-down targets on local communities. They’ve been very clear about that, they’ll ride roughshod over they’re concerns and that’s the contrast.

So if you want to protect your green spaces, there’s only one option and that’s the vote for Angela, and vote for the Conservative.

Dragon editor Martin Giles questions the prime minister

Q. So does that mean housing targets will play second fiddle to preserving the green belt?

PM: Our policy is crystal clear that we are not having top-down imposed housing targets on local areas. We’ve been clear about that. We’ve made that point clear in Parliament and then Angela is particularly onto this issue representing her community very strongly.

Our policy is crystal clear that we are not having top-down imposed housing targets on local areas.

Angela Richardson: What we do need is more social housing and the Lib Dems promise 3,000 social houses and have a dire track record on delivery, the housing waiting lists too long. And so that needs to be sorted.

Q. Local journalism is known to be in a parlous state. Last week Reach, which owns a number of numerous local titles including the local, Surrey Advertiser, announced that they’re reported to be their third job-cutting exercise in 12 months, and is closing down their online news sites in neighbouring Hampshire and Sussex. While here at the much smaller Guilford Dragon NEWS our continued existence is far from certain. Shouldn’t the government be doing more to support local journalism and resist the corrosive effect of news by social media?

PM: I’m a passionate supporter of local journalism. I think it plays a really important role in our society and also our civil discourse. I’m a subscriber. I have an app on my phone for the Daily Echo where I grew up in Southampton and the Darlington and Stockton Times where I now live in Yorkshire.  I read these things regularly, not just because, you know, they are an important way for a community to come together in a sense, but also, as I said, it’s an important part of our civil discourse and actually holding local politicians to account is an important part of what they do.

I’m a passionate supporter of local journalism. I think it plays a really important role in our society and also our civil discourse.

Angela deserves enormous credit for making herself available for that scrutiny. And transparency with you and all political parties should do that. And that’s a valuable service to people now we’re doing what we can to support them in obviously, we put money into the sector during the pandemic. We also have a business rates relief through to I think 2025 the new digital markets bill is currently working its way through Parliament will make sure that we rebalance the relationship between big online companies and newspaper businesses, particularly local ones to ensure that they are paid appropriately for their content.

So there are a range of things that we’re doing but first and foremost, this is about making sure that we have a vibrant local newspaper sector because that’s a really important part of our country.

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