VIDEO: By George! Conservative big hitter comes to town
Shadow chancellor visits easyJet
Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne called for the people of Luton to help "make that change" after 13 years of Labour "neglect" as the final countdown to polling day began in the town.
Just hours after Prime Minister Gordon Brown named May 6 as decision day for the UK, Mr Osborne made the bold promise that 45,000 Luton residents would be better off with a majority vote for candidates Nigel Huddleston and Jeremy Brier.
He told the Luton News: "Luton is a really important town in this election and I think that Luton has been neglected by the Labour government for more than 13 years and I think we've seen what having two Labour MPs has done, not enough really for Luton, and the two Conservative candidates would make a difference.
"We have two strong candidates who will really speak up for the town as strong MPs.
"It's time for Luton to make that change, part of a broad change."
The MP for Tatton's fighting talk came on a flying visit to budget airline Easyjet's HQ at Luton Airport.
During the visit Mr Osborne met with Easyjet bosses and staff to discuss the effect of the economic crisis on one of the town's biggest employers.
He said: "I want to say to this company and indeed every business large and small in Luton that if you want to grow, if you want to take on new people, then we'll support you."
He also pledged to scrap Labour's jobs tax which he said will put more people on the dole, to help seven out of 10 working people in Luton and to sort out welfare problems while promising that nobody can "expect a lifetime on benefits."
Mr Osborne also questioned the sense of appointing one of Margaret Moran's former employees, Gavin Shuker, as Luton South candidate and admitted that changes need to be made to show people that politics can still work in the wake of the expenses scandal.
He said: "Luton had one of the biggest expenses scandals and I think people felt very let down by their Labour MP.
"Now she's standing down but I think the fact is they've chosen a Labour candidate who used to work for her, I'm not suure that's particularly sensible for the Labour Party, and what we want is a clean break.
"We want to get strong Conservative MPs in and I think the job for Jeremy and Nigel and indeed all the Conservative candidates across this election is to show people that politics can work again, that we can sort out the MPs' expenses scandal, but more than that, that change is possible in Luton and I believe that the people in Luton want a change."
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Weather for Luton
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
