My Resignation from Conservative Party in 2022

c/o Thorpe Lodge
1 Yarmouth Road
Norwich
NR7 0DU
22nd November 2022

Dear Hal,
I am writing to you to advise you that I am resigning from the Conservative Party with immediate
effect.

In my opinion we are seeing the complete destruction of the Conservative Party as one of aspiration
and opportunity that rewards hard work, deregulates to promote growth and allow people to
manage their own lives, and effectively provide for its citizens in their time of need. The Party is now
conservative in name only, having steadily abandoned conservative values in favour of a Labour-lite
agenda.

The coercive lockdowns – anti-conservative to the core – have created eye-watering debt. At the
height of the pandemic, the government was spending nearly twice as much per month on paying
people to do nothing as the entire cost of the NHS. The NHS is permanently on the brink of collapse
with our leaders either too cowed or too dim to be able to generate any ideas for anything other
than cosmetic reform. 7.1 million people are waiting for vital appointments but there are no ideas to
resolve this crisis other than throwing more cash at it.

The Chancellor’s autumn statement, or more correctly termed, the Chancellor’s socialist tax grab,
has resulted in the largest tax burden since the Second World War. It punishes anyone wanting to try
harder, innovate, or offer employment, it offers no growth plan to create confidence and optimism.
That the Chancellor called dividend income “unearned” when many small business owners invest
large sums of their own money into their businesses and spend sleepless nights wondering if they
will be able to pay their staff, was as an affront to Conservative values and insulting to me as a
business owner. The Government’s reckless spending, contributing to a GDP almost 30% higher than
under Tony Blair, coupled with a complete failure to drive efficiencies in the public sector leaves a
generation of young people robbed of their cash and hope.

After twelve years of Conservative rule, we have a highly interventionist state with the highest taxes
in decades, collapsing living standards, rampant waste in public services that don’t work, an
obsession with net zero initiatives, shocking health outcomes and the disaster of 93,000 children still
missing from school registers.

I have been active in the party since 1989. When the best argument to vote Conservative is that
Labour or other alternatives will be worse, it is hardly an inducement to remain a member of, or
encouragement to campaign for, and promote, the Party.

I am pleased to see the Conservative local manifesto being delivered at Broadland District Council
and will continue to support colleagues there to deliver for residents on the promises made in the
2019 election.

Best wishes,

Cllr. Justine Thomas