Michael Sercan Daventry
05 October 2016•Update: 06 October 2016
By Michael Sercan Daventry
LONDON
Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to introduce greater market regulation and increased support for Britain’s vulnerable on Wednesday.
In a bid to move the Conservative Party towards political ground that is usually the preserve of the party’s center-left rivals, May told party members the government would help working people.
She told the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham, central England, that she would work to combat injustice in British society.
“Our society should work for everyone but if you can’t afford to get onto the property ladder or your child is stuck in a bad school, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you,” she said in televised remarks.
“Our economy should work for everyone but if your pay has stagnated for several years in a row and fixed items of spending keep going up, it doesn’t feel like it’s working for you.”
She added that “it wasn’t the wealthy who made the biggest sacrifices after the financial crash but ordinary, working class families.”
May said the government would support free markets but intervene “to repair them” where necessary.
“We are the party of workers, of those who put in the effort, those who contribute and give of their best,” she said.
Her speech, less than three months after she took office in the wake of the U.K.’s decision to leave the EU, marked a shift beyond the party’s traditional center-right base, which for decades has been associated with business-friendly policies and a focus on reducing the size of government.
May said the EU vote was a “turning point for our country” and reflected the perception in Britain that the world order was working for the “privileged few”, not ordinary families.
“Change has got to come because as we leave the European Union and take control of our own destiny, the task of tackling some of Britain’s long-standing challenges -- like how to train enough people to do the jobs of the future -- becomes ever more urgent,” she said.
“But change has got to come too because of the quiet revolution that took place in our country just three months ago -- a revolution in which millions of our fellow citizens stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored anymore.”
May’s remarks were an appeal to center-left U.K. voters who have traditionally supported the opposition Labour Party, which has been divided since the election of left-winger Jeremy Corbyn as leader last year.
The conference has seen the ruling party announce a range of policies designed to appeal to Labour voters as well as the supporters of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party.
They include proposals to open publicly-funded schools that select students by ability and to reduce the number of foreign workers and students in the country.
