Former Prime Minister Theresa May visited Newbury today (Thursday) to endorse the Conservative candidate Laura Farris ahead of next week’s General Election.
Mrs May arrived in the town centre at 11.30am and spent an hour on the bridge over the canal on Northbrook Street meeting Tory supporters, chatting to passers-by and offering her support to Mrs Farris.
She also took photos with Newbury residents and signed copies of her 2023 book The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life.
She offered her thoughts on why the people of Newbury should vote Conservative, and for Mrs Farris on July 4.
Mrs May said: “First of all, I think in terms of Conservatives, Rishi has stabilised things and turned the economy round.
“We’ve seen inflation come down significantly from 11 per cent to just over two per cent and that will be, I think, fairly soon reflected in interest rates and people’s mortgage rates.
“But critically, here in Newbury, I think people want to vote for somebody who is going to really stand up for Newbury and Laura has proved in her time as a member of parliament that is exactly what she does.
“I know because I have seen her active in the House of Commons on behalf of her constituents here in Newbury.
“She is also somebody who has made a big contribution to government and has particularly put the interests of women at the heart of what she’s done in government.”
Mrs Farris said of Mrs May: “She was an inspiration to me from well before I became an MP.”
Mrs Farris said she looks up to the former PM for a number of reasons, one being that Mrs May was one of the founders of Women2Win, an organisation that supports Conservative women who want take up public office — it helped Mrs Farris when she began her political career.
She also feels a certain kinship to Mrs May due to her also serving as a Berkshire MP (she was the MP for Maidenhead for 27 years), and that Mrs May was home secretary for six years in David Cameron’s government.
Mrs Farris has held the junior ministerial role of parliamentary under-secretary of state for victims and safeguarding since November last year and it is held jointly in the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (ministers remain in post throughout a General Election campaign).
She added: “It means the world to have her endorsement but it is also true that within my brief I covered modern slavery; it was Theresa who passed the modern slavery act, and domestic abuse; it was her who pioneered the domestic abuse acts.
“All the things that I think have characterised my time in parliament and my passions are things that she has led on. I feel like I am swimming along in her wake.”
In reply to that, Mrs May said: “You’ve definitely got your head above water and actually pushing these issues forward which is really good.”
The former PM continued: “This is an important election and at elections people are voting for a government but they are also voting for their local MP.
“They are voting for the right person to represent them and to take up their interests locally and that is why I wanted to come and support Laura because she is such a fantastic local MP.”
Mrs May said that she had visited Newbury on a number of occasions before and that it was “a beautiful town” and “a lovely place to be”.
