Conor Burns

In a 1978 interview to mark her third year as leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher addressed public concerns with immigration, stating that ‘people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped’. Goodness knows what word she would use to describe the situation we face today. Anyone who has knocked on doors or surveyed their constituents in recent years will tell you the public have had enough. Immigration into the UK is the number one concern to the British public and, in my judgment, a party that does not address it will not win. In 2003 427,000 people arrived in Britain. In the years that followed it was 518,000, 496,000, 529,000, 527,000, 538,000, 528,000, 553,000, 531,000, and 426,000.

This is an extract from a speech delivered by Tory MP Conor Burns at a Conservative association dinner in Chris Grayling's constituency tonight: It would be extraordinary if I did not mention what is going on in Scotland this evening. I represent, as self-evidently, does the Lord Chancellor beside me a constituency in England. I have watched events in Scotland through that prism of course. But I have also watched as a staunch Unionist. I have always given equal weight to the full title of our great Party: Conservative AND Unionist. I was born and spent the early years of my life in Northern Ireland into a Catholic family with broadly romantic nationalist sentiment. Yet I knew early in my life that I rejected nationalism and embraced Unionism.

I shared the surprise of most Conservative colleagues when I read Adam Afriyie’s proposed amendment to the European Referendum Bill currently going through Parliament. I thought in recent months we had established something that has eluded my Party for most of the time of my membership – a unity and consensus on matters European. The Parliamentary Party overwhelmingly backs the Bill being brought forward by my good friend, the talented and warm James Wharton. That offering is simply: if the Conservative Party wins the 2015 election there will be an In/Out referendum by 2017.  David Cameron will get his chance to get powers back and the people will make their judgement on his success in national poll.

It has often been said that there is no perfect time for an increase in MPs’ pay. If that is true then surely now would be the most imperfect time. All MPs who are doing their job to any percentage of excellence know that our constituents are feeling very concerned for the future. Any spare money they have is going into repairing domestic debt and yet with rising petrol prices, food costs and utility bills not that many have much spare money at all. So this week with the backdrop of Conservative tearing lumps out of Labour on cash and influence and Labour responding by attacking the Conservatives on funding from business we may see the independent body responsible for setting MPs pay recommend a £10,000 pay increase.

Some of the coverage of the background and views of UKIP local election candidates has been met with a glee born of a belief that it might be the silver bullet to puncture the party's recent rise in support. I have an intrinsic suspicion that this will prove not to be so. Last night I was away from news and twitter. Before reading the papers in any detail I sent a tweet saying: 'Attacking UKIP over policy or people won't work. Genuinely responding to legitimate concerns of people tempted by them may well do.' I later read Lord Ashcroft’s perceptive observations that sum up my own views precisely.

So much has been written about the lead up to, and the fall-out from, last week’s elections for Police and Crime Commissioners that it seems almost futile to try to add anything. As the paltry turn-out became obvious - formally and reportedly as it was obvious to anyone in touch with a polling station on the day - and the election of a myriad of quixotic independent candidates apparent, I tweeted that I thought we may regret introducing PCCs and that I regretted voting for the Bill which made them a reality. That was borne out of frustration that we really didn’t need to end up where we did last Friday. It was predicted and therefore avoidable. Take the issue of timing. Britain does not have a recent tradition of going to the polls in November.