Ross Mackinnon was selected by the Reading West and Mid-Berkshire Association to be their candidate for the 2024 General Election, now scheduled for July 4th.

Full statement

Ross is a lifelong Conservative, believing passionately in the need to give people the chance to aspire and reach their potential, fulfilling their life’s ambitions and reaching their goals. He is a firm believer that the role of government is to create a suitable environment and provide the infrastructural support to make this possible, for everyone who applies themselves to the task.

He believes in making your own luck, and funnily enough, the more that you put in, the luckier you are.

As teenager Ross tried to found a Conservative club, in Glasgow! He didn’t find so many fellow travellers in 1980’s Glasgow, but he felt so strongly that he has benefited from the Conservatives assisted places scheme, that he wanted to do his bit to try to perpetuate the scheme for others that were following.

He is known to some of his prospective voters as the Bradfield Ward councillor on the West Berkshire Council, a seat he has held since the May 2019 election. He held a number of roles over the years and was eventually selected as the leader of the Conservative group, following the May 2023 election.

To others he is a new prospect and he has been out canvassing on his new political patch, trying to reach as many of his extended audience as he can.

He believes that the United Kingdom has not benefitted from the Constitutional changes that New Labour introduced, under Tony Blair and that not enough attention has been paid to reversing them.

One of the serious consequences of these ‘reforms’ has been the separation of responsibilities between those who raise your taxes, ministers in the government, and those who spend it, Quangos and other Non-Governmental Organisations over which the government of the day has no direct authority.

This contradicts the basic civil covenant of ‘No Taxation without Representation’ established throughout history in differing guises, but recognised as early as the Magna Carta, the English Civil War and was contributory to America seeking independence from the United Kingdom following the attempted introduction of the ‘Stamp Tax’.

He is also frustrated that people voted for major changes in 2016 when they voted for Brexit, yet successive governments have struggled to meet those aspirations.

He is further frustrated that people seem to expect Government to take more and more control over their lives, especially since COVID, and that successive Governments seem happy to oblige and expand this remit even further, paid for through even greater taxation.

If he is elected, he will try to use his position as an MP to change the Government’s attitude to these issues and move to a system that encourages people to become more self-reliant, developing their own skills and keeping more of their earnings so that they can live the life they choose. People know best how to spend their earnings, not government