“The cost of getting back and forth between the Island and the mainland is something that needs to be addressed and that is something I would do if I was Prime Minister” – that’s the message from Conservative Party leadership hopeful James Cleverly following his visit to the Isle of Wight earlier this week. During a visit to the Island on Tuesday (13th August), Island Echo sat down to speak to Mr Cleverly – alongside Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson. James praised the ‘effortless’ journey from London Waterloo and then the subsequent Hovertravel crossing. Mr Cleverly also admitted that he had used cross-Solent travel a fair amount due to family ties on the Island, adding that he holidayed in Seaview with his family, just a few years ago. The Member of Parliament for Braintree visited Yelf’s Hotel in Ryde on Tuesday afternoon before speaking to Conservative Party Members at Brading’s Wight Knuckle Brewery, where he explained his visions for the future of not just the Conservative Party, but for the United Kingdom as a whole. 
“It is key when you live on an Island that the connectivity with the mainland is extremely important. “The tourist industry is very important for the Island, but even if you’re not involved in tourism, the cost of crossing the sea adds extra cost to everything that you do. We need to recognise that all communities in the UK are not hampered. “If you are getting it right in Government you need to serve all of the communities irrespective of their geography and when there is something that has been a long-standing frustration such as the cost and increased cost of getting back and forwards between the Island and the mainland, that’s something that needs to be addressed and I’m absolutely sure that – if am Prime Minister – it is something that I would do, for not just the Island but for isolated rural communities across the country.”
More bullcrap from another liar
What? This is lazy Labour again. Tories would have sorted this by now!
Well perhaps he could ask Banksy for the loan of his boat used at Glastonbury.. ha ha..
this is the bloke that made a joke about his wife been drugged and raped. .disgusting man
That’s the “man”.
Shame he did nothing about it previously when he was in a position of power, when half a sausage was trying to raise the issue. Now it’s just a vote scorer rather than a genuine attempt to do something positive and meaningful for islanders. The word insincere comes to mind.
Well James, let us see if you can live up to your name and come up with a solution to our problem?
If we were an island off the coast of Scotland, we would have had weee Jimmie, wee Useless and Wee Horse noise jumping up and down for the Nationalists by now!
Strange how Bonny Scotland can get good reliable links to it’s many islands and England couldn’t give a flying haggis for this one?
Not so Cleverly, liar, bigot, arrogant and of course a Tory. Need I say more.
From a party that doesn’t have too good a record regarding boats and water………
Ye good job labour are in now..
More talk NO action
It could easily be done by nationalising the Ferry Companies
I am saddened that Quigley and Robertson have done nothing
so far about the extortionate fares we have to pay per mile to cross
the solent to visit family in Pompey.
Households paying Council Tax on the island should be
given vouchers.
Please note I am already on the case.I have battered these private companies into submission .Prices of tickets are tumbling and service levels nearly at 100%..RichardioQuqlio 1 Shitlelink and Redfunnel 0.
“The cost of getting back and forth between the Island and the mainland is something that needs to be addressed and that is something I would do if I was Prime Minister”
But you aren’t going to be Prime Minister, are you Jimmy? You are probably not even going to be the leader of the opposition.
Funny how, in the 14 years we had a Tory MP and a Tory government, nothing was done about ferries. Wonder if Jimmy would like to suggest why that is.
pointess talk nothing will ever happen..just more bullshit..
I believe one problem is still that the ISLE of Wight is not recognised as an island as the Solent was originally just a river. Anyone care to expand?
Moronic post.
I for one would love to see the evidence/ reasoning behind your “belief”.
Rivers have islands in them. What has the Solent having been a river got to do with the price of mauve eggs?
Plank of the week! Dysfunctional Party in which Stride, Clevernot, Patel and Tommy Tugboat have held office and clung on desperately to it. Badenoch and Jenrick will be the final two, but the Tories are finished anyway.
Pathetic. 14+ years of Tory rule and now they pretend to give a toss about the island. In any event, they are basically powerless now and it’ll stay that way for decades. All they are good at is siphoning funds to their own and lying. Pointless comments from them now mean nothing to the many they betrayed over the years. Never trust junkies or Tories.
Given his leadership campaign, right now he would ty and convince us that his armpits taste of cream cheese.
James Cleverly and his one man mission to disprove nominative determinism.
Dimly is desperate to be PM yet has insufficient self awareness to realise he is a dunce. Why, he might ask, did the previous Tory MP do nothing about the ferry costs? Do he think we seriously nelieve he gives a toss about the cost of crossing the Solent?
But you couldn’t be ars*d to be bothered about the Island when you was Home Secretary could you? There’s a reason you and your party are no longer in Government.
He’s really not interested in the economy of the whole country. Just the city of London. Ignore his view. It’s not relevant to the Island. Just window dressing.
Horse has bolted.,fourteen years.gotta work for a living..ferry’s cherry picking their times.usless police commissioner…answers. On a postcard to ppe scandle blah blah blah..e