A year on from my selection

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed already since Labour members in Crawley chose me to represent them at the General Election.

Part of the surprise is how little has really changed. The UK’s economy and people’s living standards remain in a dire state, the standards of our public services from the NHS to road maintenance continues to decline, and crime and the inaccessibility of housing continues to grow out of control.

If that’s the bad part of the last year, the good part has been the several thousand conversations I’ve been able to have with residents over the last year about our own and the future that they want for themselves and their families. Despite the nonsense of a vocal minority online, going door-to-door it’s clear that there is far more which unites our community than divides it and the vast majority really care about our town, even if they are desperate to see things improve.

People want to know that the pressures on their household budgets won’t go on forever, that their kids will be able to get the education they need to succeed in the world and will be able to afford a place of their own in early aduilthood, and that when things go wrong they will be able to access services like the NHS or police to help make them right.

I first got into politics because I realised that the inequality in our society would limit the life opportunities of far too many the people I went to school with. To this day, I draw motivation from knowing that when I fight for out town, it’s my community–that friends and family belong to–which I am fighting for in a place that I love.

Of course, you have to focus your attention and from those thousands of conversations with residents and digging into the data on the issues facing the town, I believe that there are five areas which should be prioritised for the parliamentary term if I am successfully elected at the General Election due to be held in the next 10 months. These being:

• A thriving local economy and support for the town centre
• Housing which delivers for local people
• A better future for Crawley’s children
• Real action on crime and antisocial behaviour
• A better-resourced NHS that’s there when you need it

If we can ensure that people have decently paying work and a house they can afford, while investing in the public services we need for the community to thrive, Crawley will be a very different place from the one we’re living in now.