Press Release – Prime Minister’s Comments on Families – 31 March 1992

Below is the text of the Conservative Party Press Release on Mr Major’s comments on families. It was issued on Tuesday 31st March 1992, reference 689/92.

THE BEST FUTURE FOR YOUR FAMILY

“Today we are going to talk about family life. About people’s homes – and about what parents want for their children,” the Rt Hon John Major, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, told a press conference at Conservative Central Office today.

“Our message is very simple.

The Conservatives will help you to a better home – and we will make sure that your children get a better education.

So what are we going to do?

We’re going to make life easier for people buying their own home. Our policies will mean lower mortgage rates and a stronger housing market. We’re going to help young people get a foot on the home-owning ladder. We’re going to help council tenants improve their own homes – and buy their own homes more easily. We’re going to end the misery of people who find themselves living on run-down council estates.

Labour has never been the home owners’ friend. It’s been the Conservatives who’ve had to fight for the right of council tenants to escape the tyranny of Labour councils. Now Labour’s plans for over-spending and over-taxing would hit millions of mortgage holders. Labour’s policies would destroy the housing market. And would condemn council tenants to the same old mismanagement which Labour councils have inflicted on them for decades.

Conservatives believe in giving people the right to choose.

We believe too in choice in education. We’re going to make it easier to choose your child’s school. If the school you want is over-subscribed, it will be able to expand to take in more children. We’ll make sure that there are new kinds of schools – specialising, for example, in technology. And we will go on winning the battle to get the basics right. By having a proper curriculum. By tests that will tell parents how much progress their child is making. And by giving parents the right to know what is going on in their child’s school.

What about Labour? They have only one policy whatever the problem. To spend more of your money. They never ask – how can we do it better. Labour’s only policy is to make the taxpayer stump up more.

Nothing makes me angrier about socialism than the way it has stopped so many families getting a better home and so many children getting a better education. Conservatives believe that families know best and that parents know best. So we’re taking power away from the State and from councils and giving it to families and parents.”