Rother Valley will stick with Tories, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says on Maltby visit

The constituency had always returned a Labour MP until Alexander Stafford in 2019, when the so-called red wall crumbled.

Speaking at a visit to the Queen’s pub in Maltby today (7), Mr Sunak said he felt voters there would stick with the Tories.

“First and foremost, we’ve got a fantastic local MP,” he said. “Alex does a fantastic job of championing local communities in parliament and he’s delivering for them.

“This government is delivering for them, £12 million of funding for Dinnington, just over £5 million already here in Maltby, and we’re having conversations about what Alex would like to do in future that’s going to help regenerate and improve the town centres and local communities, provide opportunities.

“That is this government levelling up, delivering for people in these communities.

“I know things have been tough over the past couple of years, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine and the impact that’s had, but I really believe that we’ve turned a corner at the start of this year.

“The plans that we’ve put in place are starting to deliver change that people want to see.

“If we stick to our plan, people can have peace of mind. There’s a brighter future ahead for them and their families, and we can all have a renewed sense of pride in our country.”

Levelling Up cash is being spent on the Maltby Grammar School refurbishment, and will be used to regenerate the area near the burnt-out former florist’s at Dinnington.

Mr Sunak added that “every penny” of cash from the scrapped HS2 line would be reinvested in local transport across the north.

Mr Stafford said: “What I hear on the doorstep again and again, especially in Maltby, residents want change, and they want change away from a poorly-led, poorly run Labour council that’s dominating the area, and that is focuses too much on the people of Rotherham and not Rother Valley.

“This used to be a Labour heartland through and through, but the Conservatives are starting to deliver. No other Prime Minister has been to Rother Valley.”

Cllr Chris Read, Labour leader of Rotherham council said 14 years of the Tories had left people worse off.

“In the last three years alone, the number of Rotherham children relying on free school meals has risen by 25 per cent to nearly 13,000 while taxes are at their highest level in living memory,” he said.

“By some measures, half of the bus routes in England have been lost since the Conservatives came to power.

“For Rotherham Council, they’ve meant we’ve lost £200 million of services each year, and for most of the last 14 years, we’ve had fewer police officers than there were at the end of the last Labour government.

“One or two local capital investments, however welcome they are, simply can’t make up for that.

“In almost every area of life now it feels as though our country is broken.”