Rebecca Pow, Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane took centre stage at the Conservative Party Conference to introduce the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd; the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Liz Truss.
In her opening speech, Rebecca said; ‘Last year I had the nerve racking privilege of speaking to Conference as the candidate for Taunton Deane. One year on, I’m here again but this year, I have the even greater privilege of speaking as the Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane.’
In introducing the Secretary of State for DEFRA Rebecca especially pushed the rural agenda saying, 'with deep seated rural roots myself I feel strongly that rural areas should be given equal weighting alongside their urban counterparts and in this endeavour I fully support the Minister.
Rebecca ensured Taunton Deane was highlighted at every opportunity pressing the point that together with the 30 other Conservative MPs that swept the board in the election, she would be pushing forward to deliver on promises made. In addition she highlighted the progress made to breathe new life into the Somerset Levels by the government following the devastating flooding as well as referring to the growth in our local economy. Slightly tongue in cheek she referred to the memorable visit she made to thriving local business the Ministry of Cake in Taunton where she iced a carrot cake with the Chancellor, saying: 'and I am pleased to report that he is far more adept at running the economy than he was at icing that carrot cake!'
Later Rebecca praised the announcements made earlier by the Chancellor regarding business rates: 'Business rates are constantly raised with me by local businesses right across Taunton and Wellington and I've been feeding in ideas and suggestions for change to the Treasury. So I was delighted to hear George Osborne’s announcement that local government will be able to keep the rates they collect from local businesses and that powers to reduce business rates will be devolved to local authorities. This illustrates how this government really is dedicated to putting more power in the hands of local people.'