November 7, 2019 3.58 pm This story is over 52 months old

Five things we learned from Lincoln Tory MP hopeful & Newark MP

Karl McCartney started his general election campaign backed by the housing secretary

Karl McCartney has now officially launched his general election campaign in a bid to oust Labour from Lincoln.

The former Conservative Lincoln MP from 2010 to 2017 visited The Lincolnite on Thursday backed by Newark MP Robert Jenrick, also the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Here are five things we learned about Karl’s campaign ahead of the election on December 12.

These are all the candidates stepping up to the plate (so far).

Back Boris Brexit

Brexit will, of course, be a big talking point in the upcoming election. Robert Jenrick and Karl McCartney are both behind Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

The Conservatives failed to deliver on the October 31 deadline, but both MP hopefuls were keen to blame Labour for the delay.

Mr Jenrick said: “This is a good deal. Above all, it enables us to get Brexit done. I think that people in Lincoln, a city I know well representing Newark, are aching to move on.”

Labour MP thwarts Brexit

The Secretary of State also attacked Karen Lee for voting against the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal.

“Karen Lee as the MP for the last two years,” Robert Jenrick claimed, “has contributed to that paralysis. She has voted against all of the good deals put forward.

“She has voted for more delays, more dither, more expense by staying in the EU for absolutely no purpose at all, refusing to respect the outcome of the referendum.”

Britain should have left in six months

Karl McCartney said that Britain could have left the European Union six months after the referendum.

The former Lincoln MP was on the Brexit select committee and revealed that he challenged senior civil servants on the two-year forecast for leaving the EU.

“We could have said to the EU,” Karl added, “we always want to trade with you. Our door is always going to be open but here are the things we want in a deal.

“If they are not there in six months then we will walk away. That would have brought everything forward instead of it being dragged out.

“This indecision has affected businesses locally and we do not want that to happen anymore.”

Lincolnshire devolution deal

The leader of Lincolnshire County Council recently told Lincolnshire Reporter that he wanted a “genuine devolution deal” without a directly elected mayor.

It is a position Karl McCartney appears to disagree with. He said that Lincolnshire could earn a “bigger share of the pie” with a mayor.

He continued: “I am just putting the other side across. If we want to see Lincolnshire benefit from the money that is available, then perhaps a single figurehead could help.

“London is not a rural area but having a Mayor of London has made sure that the capital has been given a bigger slice of the pie than perhaps they are due.”

Incoming eco-housing boom

A spending watchdog highlighted how successive Conservative governments have failed to build a single “starter home” despite promising to build 200,000 by 2020.

The Secretary of State for Housing claimed that it was because they were focused on building different types of homes instead.

He claimed: “We appreciate that this is a major challenge for the country. We are moving forward, we are making big progress but there’s more to do.”

P.S.: Register to vote here