This election campaign will be relatively short and it must be fought on issues that are impacting on many people in our constituency right now. The Tories will lead you to believe that this election is all about Brexit; but they’re wrong. It’s about those millions of people in jobs with zero hours contracts. It’s about the millions of families having to visit food banks each year to feed their themselves and their children. It’s about the crisis in funding facing almost every school in the country. It’s about the chaos within the NHS, brought about by lack of genuine investment.
This election, more than any other, is a binary choice between deeper and wider cuts, as the Tories trample on society with the boots of their austerity agenda, or a genuine alternative with a progressive Labour Party, ready to fight for a fairer and more equal Britain.
This is a Labour Party that will:
• Introduce a £10 an hour LIVING WAGE
• Push for FULL EMPLOYMENT
• Commit to building 100,000 new COUNCIL HOUSES per year
• End exploitative ZERO HOURS CONTRACTS
• Integrate a PROPERLY FUNDED NHS and social care system
• Create a NATIONAL EDUCATION SERVICE
• RENATIONALISE RAILWAYS as franchise agreements come to an end
• Ensure that the estimated £34 to £102 billions of unpaid tax is collected
Under 7 years of Tory Government the national debt has risen to almost £1 TRILLION, that’s 85.3% of GDP. Before the economic crisis of 2008, caused by the free market that the Tories love so much, the % of national debt to GDP under the Labour Government was 39%. The Tories have the audacity to say that Labour cannot manage the economy. The Tories have miss-managed the economy and miss-managed our country.
The Pudsey constituency is a wide and diverse community. When elected as MP I will work my hardest for everyone in this constituency, not just the chosen few.
Living in Horsforth is wonderful and I’m lucky to have friends and acquaintances in many other parts of the constituency. A Labour Government will enable communities like ours to be even better.
We have a campaign team in place and we’re already out there on the doorsteps, talking directly to voters and delivering the Labour message. This won’t be an easy seat to win but we have a fantastic line-up of Labour activists ready to fight day and night to return this seat to the Labour Party. I feel I am the right person to take on sitting MP Stuart Andrew. Whilst his party leader runs away from public debate I would relish the opportunity to stand toe to toe with Stuart Andrew and remind him of the woeful mess his party has led us into.
I hope I can count on the support or my many friends and colleagues, I hope I can achieve the candidacy for Pudsey and I hope that I welcome in 9th June as the MP for Pudsey going to Parliament to serve in a Labour Government.