A COUNCILLOR has left the Conservative party claiming the government is ‘running the country into the ground’.

Fareham Borough Councillor Nick Gregory, who represents Fareham South, has left the Conservatives following correspondence with Fareham MP and Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Cllr Gregory said that remaining a Conservative would "contradict my pledge to support our local people and represent their best interests".

"My conscience will not allow me to assist in Suella’s re-election as the MP for Fareham by remaining a Conservative ward councillor,’ he said.

"I can no longer be an advocate for a party whose underfunding of all public sectors and utilities over the last 13 years (including education, the NHS, and local public services delivered through local authorities) has brought our country to its knees with strikes in nearly every employment sector and on the brink of financial collapse."

In a letter to Mrs Braverman, Cllr Gregory criticised the ways the government are impacting his business – a nursery and preschool named Little Munchkins.

These include a decrease in early years education funding, rising costs of living, lack of investment in promoting new staff and the minimum wage increase.

Cllr Gregory added: "As a nursery owner, I speak directly as a small business proprietor who is being forced, along with numerous other small/medium businesses, into financial ruin due to an increasingly unacceptable lack of government funding over the last 13 years accompanied by unmanageable increases in overheads.

"Suella was completely unable to explain or justify why the current Conservative administration is forcing small/medium businesses to honour a 10.2 per cent pay increase through their living and minimum wages scheme, when they are only offering all public sectors four to five per cent increases."

In a written response to Cllr Gregory, Mrs Braverman noted his concerns about the national living wage (NLW).

"The government is investing an additional £20m into early years entitlements to help with the additional costs that childcare providers will face as a result of the NLW increases," she wrote.

"These changes are creating a fairer system that better provides the affordable and high-quality childcare needed to give children all over the country the best opportunity to reach their full potential."