In this campaign and in this election there really is no more important issue than getting Britain working again, getting people back in to jobs again, getting our economy moving again.
And one of the arguments we can make in this campaign is that if you vote Conservative on Thursday you'll have a Government with its sleeves rolled up on Friday starting to do the work that we need to get Britain back to work.
Because as we stand today we've got one in four adults economically inactive, we've got nine hundred thousand young people not in education, not in employment, not in training. This is not good for our country, we've got to get Britain back to work.
Now when we started this campaign we were honest about the scale of change that was needed in Britain and also about how we were going to achieve that change. We said that real change isn't just the Government playing its part but it's when everyone takes part in and helps build a stronger country. And nowhere is that more true than our economy because you all know as business people it's not Governments that create jobs it is businesses that create jobs. And at this stage in the campaign though we can now set out what it is that Government will do to help business to create jobs, what is our side of the bargain, and that's what we have in this our contract between us and the voters that we're sending out right across our country.
And I want to be very clear today about what it is in terms of getting jobs and getting the economy moving that we will do. The first thing we will do as it says right there, and I'll sign it in a minute, we will stop Labour's jobs tax. You all know as employers the craziest thing we could do right now is put up National Insurance contributions and make it more expensive to employ people. And also put up National Insurance on everyone earning over twenty thousand pounds, that is what Labour propose to do next year.
We say cut the waste this year, stop the wasteful spending this year to stop the jobs tax next year. If you get a Conservative Government on Friday we will start that work at once to stop the jobs tax and make sure that here in Cornwall and throughout the South West we get more people in to work rather than price them out of jobs. That is our first promise.
The second promise is this; for too long in our country it has been possible to go on claiming welfare even when you're offered a job that you could do. Now we want to make work pay, we want to increase the incentives for work but we cannot go on with a situation where you're offered a job, you're given the training, you're given the help but you refuse to take that job and go on claiming welfare. So for the first time we will have a proper system of sanctions. If you reject a job to start with you lose your welfare for one month, then three months and then up to three years. And I think it is only fair because people have said to me throughout this campaign why should I go on paying my taxes so that other people who could work don't work.
But the vital and the third step that we will take is we will have the biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive programme of getting Britain back to work any Government has ever introduced. We will take all those Labour schemes and all that Labour money and create a new work programme that will have four hundred thousand opportunities in terms of apprenticeships and training places and extra college places to help get young people in to work.
And one absolutely vital thing for here in the South West is saying to small and medium sized enterprises we want to make it easier for you to take on apprentices. For every apprentice you take on a two thousand pound bonus, so it's not just the big companies involved in apprenticeships it is the small ones too.
That is our side of the bargain. It is set out in our contract with the voter. We want people to hold us to it. In this country we've had unaccountable Government for too long, people making promises nothing ever changes. We want to say these are our policies, hold us to them, if we haven't achieved them at the end of the parliament kick us out because this is what we promise.
And let me just end by saying this here in Cornwall where I'm standing next to Caroline Righton who I think would make a fantastic Member of Parliament in Newquay and St Austell. That I think in this campaign I've come back and back to Cornwall because the Conservatives have a big commitment to Cornwall and you could see it in what we did just before this parliament ended. Who was it who stood up and fought the Government over the phone tax that would actually not help us have broadband it would cut people off? Who is it who stood up and fought the Government on the cider tax that would do so much harm to the South West? And who is who fought the Government to a standstill on the new rules for furnished holiday lettings that could cost four thousand five hundred jobs here in the South West?
We understand the need for sustainable tourism here in Cornwall. We want to support that and we want to back Cornwall's small and medium sized businesses to help bring the recovery that all, that we all want. But above all I would ask you this as we go in to the last few days of this campaign; to any one you meet, to any one you talk to, to any one whose doorstep you're on, any one you meet down the pub the message is this, if you want a new direction on Friday, a new Prime Minister, a new Government, action on the economy, getting our country moving again vote Conservative on Thursday.
Anything else will be uncertainty or fudge or muddle or with Gordon Brown stuck with what we've got. If you want change, change that works, change that can deliver, change you can be sure of please vote Conservative on Thursday. We can roll up our sleeves and get to work building a stronger country from Friday.