When you buy a ‘British’ pork pie, you probably assume that the pork comes from Britain.

In fact, meat from abroad can be imported into Britain to be processed into bacon, sausages and pies which can then be labelled to suggest they are British.

We think this is dishonest. People have a right to know where their food comes from. Meat labelled ‘British’ should be born and bred in Britain, raised to our high welfare standards.

Consumers should be free to choose food from any country, but real choice requires real information.

So the Conservatives are demanding honest ‘country of origin’ labelling to restore trust and allow people to choose British food with confidence.

- View the five worst examples of food labelling

- See current examples of unclear and misleading labelling

- Read our policy - Food labelled ‘British’ should be born and bred in Britain

- View our leaflet - Food labelled ‘British’ should be born and bred in Britain

- The text of our Food Labelling Regulations (Amendment) Bill

- Explanatory Notes to the Food Labelling Regulations (Amendment) Bill

Sign our petition

Join our demand for honest country of origin labelling by signing this petition.

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We’re setting up job clubs across the country and a new location-based search engine to help people find jobs.

Since January Conservative candidates, MPs and councillors have been setting up job clubs across the country to help local people who have lost their jobs in the recession. It has become very clear to those running job clubs that people searching for jobs really need a means of finding out about jobs local to them in a quick and simple way.

That’s why we are championing a new job search engine developed by Zubed, a UK-based software development company. It is free to use and can either help you to find a job if you are looking for work or to post a job if you are an employer looking for new staff.

It is a useful tool for those looking for work in the current economic climate. We want to raise awareness of Zubed’s free job search engine so that its 100,000+ current jobs can really help get Britain working.

Get Britain Working Job Clubs

Conservative candidates and MPs are setting up Job Clubs to help people back into work.

Job Clubs act as support groups for those looking for work, and provide practical assistance in the form of interview practice, CV workshops, career talks and advice on job-hunting.

We know that finding a job can be difficult, especially in these tough economic times – and our Job Clubs give people the motivation and support they need to get back to work.

Read about the Job Clubs set up by Tony Baldry in Banbury, Maggie Throup in Solihull and Chris Skidmore in Kingswood.

Find out how to set up a Job Club in your area.

The Issues

• Thanks to Gordon Brown’s economic mismanagement, unemployment is rocketing in Britain.
• Labour’s Debt Crisis means we are facing a long recession – and Brown’s attempts to deal with the downturn are simply not working:
• The bank recapitalisation has not got credit flowing again
• The VAT cut has failed to stimulate the economy
• The Government’s business strategy has not stopped businesses from closing
• It is vital we provide support and assistance for those affected by the economic downturn. The key priorities must be:
• Finding ways to ease the pressures on businesses
• Dealing more effectively with unemployment, with practical support and advice for those who lose their jobs
• Direct help for families, pensioners and other groups hit hard by the recession
• We can’t, as an opposition party, implement major policy changes that will help things immediately. But we can put forward proposals that we believe will help get Britain working again – in both the short and long term.
• And we can also offer practical help and advice for those who have been hit by the economic downturn.

Our Policies

• Easing the pressure on businesses:
• A National Loan Guarantee Scheme with up to £50bn of guarantees for new lending to businesses of all sizes.
• A £10bn scheme to allow small and medium-sized enterprises with cash flow difficulties to defer their VAT bills, for up to six months. For a typical business with a VAT bill of £350,000, this could involve £90,000, the difference between survival and failure.
• Cutting corporation tax. We are committed to cutting the basic rate of corporation tax, reversing Labour’s tax hike. This would be paid for by scrapping Labour’s complex corporation tax reliefs
• Cutting payroll taxes (National Insurance) by one pence for six months for the smallest employers (those with fewer than five employees), to help them save money and so keep jobs.

Tackling unemployment:

• A £3 billion programme of incentives to employers who take on someone who has been unemployed for more than three months
• A major expansion of training with financial help for smaller firms
• A removal of restrictions on activities while on benefits
• Changing the rules for rapid re-training so that unemployed people can take up training opportunities whilst claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance

External Links

Keep Britain Working is a website which enables employers and employees to post up practical ways of avoiding making redundancies.

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