Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Robert on Twitter. His second piece in our Compassionate Conservatism series follows the first from Jesse Norman MP. 99.3% of the UK Budget is not spent on Overseas Aid. So what is all the fuss about? When looked at in the context of the whole […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Robert on Twitter. Dear Andrew, I read your latest article in the Telegraph with interest. We agree on many things. For example, that a new homes tax would be misguided. You are right to highlight the danger of taxing property, not merely because of the cost of […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. What is the best way to show that tax-cutting is the best way to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, to help eliminate the poverty trap and create incentives to work? What tax measure would really neutralise Labour's oft-spoken claims that […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. I agree that there should be a Palestinian State. In fact, not many realise there is already a Palestinian State called Jordan — originally called TransJordan (because it was across the River on the East Bank), that was created by the British, for […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. On Tuesday, I tabled a Private Members Bill on petrol prices, supported by many other Conservative backbenchers, as well as MPs from Northern Ireland, and Scotland. (You can see an extract in the short video above.) The idea behind it was very simple: […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. If Ed Milliband wanted to claim that Labour is the party of One Nation — or of One Notion, as described by the PM — then the Tories can do some similar stealing of Labour clothes. The Conference in Birmingham, redefined by […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. I am one of those who believe that pessimism is a luxury that no Tory can allow himself. So, whilst we can watch Mr Miliband's speech and congratulate him for some political ingenuity — regarding his 'One Nation' clarion call — in practice […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. Today in Parliament, I will lead a debate in Parliament, urging the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority to investigate the oil market. This is for three reasons: Petrol and diesel have never been more expensive, despite a two-year freeze […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. He tweets at @halfon4harlowMP. You can also follow the @PetrolPromise campaign or see www.PetrolPromise.com for a full list of supportive MPs. Some bad news today for people filling up the family car. The Sun says oil prices are set to hit “a new high”, causing misery for millions. The […]
Robert Halfon is Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. You can sign the petition at www.PetrolPromise.com. Regular readers will know that I have been banging on about petrol and diesel prices for some years now – and actually ConservativeHome was instrumental, in making the case through 2011 for lower fuel duty. The Government […]
Robert Halfon is the Conservative MP for Harlow and a Vice-Chair of the APPG on the Kurdistan Region. Follow Rob on Twitter. The British Government should formally recognise historic atrocities against the Iraqi Kurds as genocide according to a report from a cross-party group of MPs, launched today in the Commons in co-operation with the […]
Robert Halfon is Conservative MP for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. What are four words that best sum the Tory-led Government? Labour would have the public believe it is 'grannies', charities, 'pasties' and 'millionaires'. But, Conservatives don't need to let the left's narrative become the story. There is a very powerful message to communicate, centred […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter It’s time that Conservatives stopped bashing trade unions and start remembering our roots. That is the central argument of my DEMOS pamphlet that was released yesterday: Stop the Union Bashing. The battles with Arthur Scargill in the 1980s cloud many people’s perception of our relationship […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. “There is another Iraq, buried under Iraq”. So said the head of the Kurdistan Mass Graves Commission as she explained to me her work during my recent visit to Kurdistan with the All-Party Parliamentary Kurdistan Group. Travelling around Iraq, her job is to try […]
Robert Halfon is the Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Robert on Twitter. To misquote Benjamin Franklin, there are only two things certain in life – death and fuel taxes. Every budget, Governments used to raise fuel duty at midnight and motorists would flock to petrol stations the night before. This Government is the first to […]