David Cameron speaking to the British Chambers of Commerce on 10th February 2015:
“I’ve sat in Parliament from 2001 to 2015.
“For the first 9 years of that I had opposite me on those green benches Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and whatever else we disagreed on, we agreed that business is the generator of growth.
“That long-held consensus in British politics is now over.
“Labour want to hike up corporation tax which new analysis shows could cost our economy over 96,000 jobs.
“They’ve opposed every planning reform and every welfare reform.
“They want to intervene in the market and fix prices. Worst of all – Labour have no credible plan to deal with the deficit and get Britain back living within our means.
“Just think of the risks to your business. More borrowing, more debt, higher interest rates, a loss of confidence in Britain.
“So I don’t want anyone here coming to me in a year’s time and saying “I didn’t realise it would be like this.”
“A former Party leader, back in the day, gave a famous warning.
“Let me update it – and change the Party.
“I warn you. I warn you not to grow your business – because they’ll come after you.
“I warn you not to take people on – because they’ll slap taxes on you.
“I warn you not to create wealth – because they’ll demonise you.
“I warn you not to aspire to aspire, to work, to turn a profit, to build something better – because in their vision, you are the enemy: private sector ‘bad’; public sector ‘good’.
“Everyone who works in a business or runs a business has reason to fear the alternative – and that is the plain truth.
Life will be very different.”