Norfolk MPs say new Conservative leader must highlight rural challenges
The new Leader of the Opposition will be announced on November 2nd
Two Conservative MPs in Norfolk are telling us that their party's new leader must help to shine a light on the range of issues facing rural communities.
From tomorrow until September 11th, the 121 members of the party in Parliament will start voting for who they want to be 'the leader of the opposition' in the house of Commons.
"My mailbag is filled with letters of those worried"
George Freeman represents Mid Norfolk:
"We need a clear economic vision about how this country can get back on the front-foot and deal with the rate at which un-reformed and unproductive public services are swallowing up billions of pounds, without delivering services that the public want to see.£
James Wild represents North West Norfolk.
He says rise costs of essentials and the planned scale back of winter fuel payments are worrying many people, locally:
"It's going to be tough winter for many and there's still time for the Government to rethink their plans on how they support those struggling. My mailbag is filled with letters of those worried about how the scaling back of winter fuel payments will affect them."
The timetable:
4-11 September: Conservative MPs will vote in a series of ballots to narrow the field down to four candidates.
29 September-2 October: The Conservative Party Conference will take place, where each of the four remaining leadership hopefuls will give a speech
2–10 October: Conservative MPs will vote in two more ballots, where the four candidates will be whittled down to two finalists.
10–31 October: The final two candidates will go head-to-head in an online ballot of all Tory party members.
2 November: The new leader of the Conservative party and leader of the Opposition will be announced.