Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited Norfolk today with the aim of bolstering the Conservative campaign in the upcoming local elections.
Mrs Rudd, accompanied by Conservative council candidates in Hethersett, said securing a Tory majority was key to making sure Norfolk could move forward.
'These are important elections for the county,' she said.
'I really want [the Conservatives] to make these gains and be able to make quite a significant difference.'
She pointed to a recent Ofsted report on the County Council's beleaguered children's services department. She said the improvements made there were down to having a Conservative-run council.
'We should be encouraged by that,' she added.
The main message at the Conservative manifesto launch last month, was that they wanted to be a party known for caring for the community.
Mrs Rudd said it was possible to be caring alongside making cuts.
'I think when you think about what the job of a politician is, we want to care for people, it goes to the heart of what we do.
'I think you can care about people and still be efficient with people's money, we have to make sure we can spend their money wisely.'
She also said a lot of work had been done in the county to tackle crime, especially the kind of county lines drug dealing targeted in Norfolk Police's Operation Gravity.
'We have already done a lot of work on county lines, for example accessing phone lines so we can track the people doing this damage.
'We work very closely with the Police and Crime Commissioner Lorne Green, so if we can get this Conservative council, we've already got a Conservative PCC and a Conservative government - we can work together to target this crime, which doesn't stop at county borders.'
Mrs Rudd's visit is the latest in a line a of big name politicians who have visited to help on the campaign.
Two weeks ago Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited Bowthorpe, in Norwich. And Transport Secretary Chris Grayling appeared at the manifesto launch last month.
Cliff Jordan, Conservative leader of the county council, said it was 'great to them in Norfolk'.
He added: 'It's especially good to have people come and look at our county, and see we could have a really well-run Conservative council here.'
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