I’m so pleased to share the news with you that I’ve been selected as Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Bicester and Woodstock Constituency.
As the local party’s campaign’s lead I’ve already been out and about, knocking on doors and meeting people across the constituency, many of whom are crying out for change and an end to years of chaos under the Conservatives. I’m delighted that I now have an opportunity - and a responsibility - to help make that change happen.
For twenty years, I’ve been campaigning for a more healthy environment, a kinder society where people treat each other with respect and for public services that won’t let us down. Through my paid work as a professional campaigner for charities like Save the Children, through roles as an elected representative and through volunteering in my local community, I love bringing people together to make change.
It has been a huge honour to apply my energy and skills – working with many of you –to building the Bicester and Woodstock constituency Labour Party. It’s a fresh team for a fresh constituency, ready to serve you and is proud to include members with years of political and professional experience from teachers to health professionals, veterans' families to business owners. Together we’re truly grounded in Bicester and Woodstock life.
I’ve lived in many places across the UK and abroad, but Bicester and Woodstock is home. It's where I live with my family, where I got married and where I spent my summer holidays as a child. There’s so much to love about our area, as well as much to improve. We now have an opportunity to bring change to our area and to the country that we’ve never had before.
Our area needs change. Whether it’s the hard-working but under-resourced GP surgery in Woodstock, the challenges people face to find a decent home and pay their mortgage, or the congestion in Bicester as infrastructure fails to keep pace with housing, or the degradation of our beautiful environment. There is so much to turn around.
The independent data shows we are the alternative to the Tories. If there were a general election tomorrow, the polls say we’d beat them. And unlike other parties we have no history of cosying up with the Tories in coalition - letting them continue their chaos through the back door. No rose garden scenes from us, just a simple commitment to serving the public.
As well as working locally, I want to be the voice of our community in Westminster. I want to serve under a new government that treats voters with respect and focusses on issues that genuinely make a difference to people’s ability to lead happy, healthy lives.
I want to wave goodbye to the days when £billions are wasted on initiatives whose main purpose is political advantage rather than real change. We need that money, well spent, for our precious public services.
If you’d like to support our campaign for change please get in touch on the Bicester and Woodstock Labour social media accounts or through my website. We want to involve people who’ve never thought of voting labour before. Perhaps never imagined our area could be anything other than a tired shade of blue. Now is our opportunity together!