Stride says Tories must ‘hold nerve’ amid polling slump

The Conservatives need to “hold our nerve” amid flatlining polls, Sir Mel Stride said, as he prepared to set out plans to slash £47 billion from public spending.

The shadow chancellor told the PA news agency “all things are possible” and the party needed to set out “bold” policies to win back support.

His comments come a day after polling guru Sir John Curtice told an event on the fringes of the Conservative conference that the party was “undoubtedly” on course to finish fourth behind the Liberal Democrats.

But Sir Mel told PA that, with four years to go until the next election, anyone attempting to predict the outcome was “being pretty brave”.

He said: “If you were interviewing me in 2019 and I was a socialist, you’d be saying: ‘Mel Stride, you’ve had the worst result for the Labour Party since the 1930s, you’re never going to get back into office.’

“And look what happened five years later. All things are possible.

“And what we’ve got to do is hold our nerve and, as we are at this conference, come forward with credible, bold, relevant policies, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

The Conservatives have made “stronger economy” one of the slogans of their conference, and Sir Mel is expected to attempt to reclaim the party’s reputation for economic responsibility in his first conference speech as shadow chancellor on Monday.

His plan includes swingeing cuts, including £23 billion in savings by preventing people with “low level” mental health problems from claiming sickness benefits and restricting welfare eligibility.

On Sunday, the party said it would “ensure only British citizens can access welfare”, but the plans will also see EU nationals with settled status continue to be eligible, in line with the UK-EU treaty.

Sir Mel said this made no difference to his numbers, as they already excluded payments to EU nationals.

He told PA: “I don’t think I’m selling it as anything other than it is, which is that when it comes to EU nationals, they will still have access.”

And responding to claims from the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank that he was ignoring the “elephant in the room” of age-related spending such as pensions, he said the party was “firmly committed” to the triple lock.

Asked whether cuts to working-age benefits were necessary to pay for the rising costs of the triple lock, he told PA: “You have to make savings in order to get the debt down, in order to get taxes down, and in order to fund spending in other areas, and everything has to add up in a fiscally responsible manner.”

Along with his proposals for spending cuts, Sir Mel is also expected to propose giving new workers a £5,000 national insurance rebate when they get their first full-time job, that they can then put towards buying a home.

He told PA: “It’s sending a very, very strong message to young people that the Conservative Party gets it when it comes to making sure that younger people, younger generations, benefit from our economy.”