Tories must offer practical solutions and prevent the calamity of a Labour Government, says Sir Robert Buckland

A constitutional democracy, underpinned by the rule of law, embodying decency, restraint and strong moral values that run with a vigorous free market economy-that is what Conservatism means to me, and which is why I have always described myself as a One Nation Conservative.

Although we are the Party of the Nation, that does not give us a God-given right to rule.

A sense of humility and of the privilege of being given the chance to serve should lie at the heart of a Conservative approach to government. Having been proud to represent South Swindon since 2010, my feet have been kept firmly on the ground by my constituents, I can tell you!

Having won my seat from Labour, I firmly believe that it is our solemn duty to prevent the calamity of yet another Labour Government that will promise everything and deliver worse than nothing.

The Conservatives, however, have to offer a positive agenda for the next five years. I accept that the challenge to us doesn’t only come from Keir Starmer, but also from appeals from parties such as Reform that say that we are just the different side of the same coin as Labour.

Rather than worrying about the activities of our opponents, my Party is best advised to focus on the road ahead and to think of the Britain that we want to hand on to our children and grandchildren. That is something that I know motivates people in communities up and down our land.

People want security: secure defences and borders at a time when world threats are increasingly unpredictable; security of energy supply to prevent us from being exposed to further price shocks; security of food supply, to help ease the growing cost of our shopping baskets and the confidence that our children will be secure as they go to and from school and the normal activities of their lives.

They also want to know that essential public services are there when they are ill or have an accident. All these concerns lie at the heart of what it means to be a Conservative.

At the coming election, we should be putting security at the heart of our Conservative agenda. This has to include a bold offer on housing development, with the housing development zones and modern methods of construction to speed up the process and deliver the homes that our children and grandchildren want to buy to be part of our property-owning democracy.

We need a transformation in financial services, with tax breaks for individual investment in new savings and other financial products that mean that housing isn’t the only way to guarantee a long-term return, helping to free up supply.

Major construction projects such as the prison-building programme should be designated as key national infrastructure, speeding up the process and delivering much-needed places more quickly.

In order to tackle backlogs more quickly, we should ramp up the creation of NHS community treatment hubs, to ease pressure on our acute hospitals, which is more efficient and better for patients.

Our taxation system is too complex and unfair. We should set out a clear plan for income tax simplification, removing unfair marginal tax rates that have dragged too many people into very high tax brackets.

We should more resources to the investigation of crime, with clear timetables for police investigations and prosecution decisions as well as court reform and investment in technology that makes the system work more efficiently.

And when it comes to immigration, rather than spending time and resource on initiatives that are marginal at best, continuing to reach bilateral and multilateral agreements with other countries and working collectively to deal with the problem of mass migration at source has to be the best way forward.

Conservatives don’t need to offer soaring poetry at this election, but practical solutions to create a future that works.

Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland KBE KC MP is Conservative MP for South Swindon and is a former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Wales.