your priorities are my priorities

Meeting local people at a public meeting in Queen's Park and Charminster to answer questions.
Meeting local people interested in joining our campaign at a meeting in Southbourne.
Meeting BCP Council's Leader Councillor Vikki Slade with a carer of somebody suffering from dementia. I brought Debbie, the carer, together with the Leader to hear about the impact of a proposed cut to a dementia care centre in Moordown. Together we
Bringing together local GPs with Wes Streeting, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, so that they can shape plans for Government.
Meeting local people to come up with solutions at our event about improving the town centre.

For nearly two years I have been running a listening campaign to ensure my neighbours and local people can shape my priorities if elected as your next Labour MP. My team and I have knocked on over 40,000 doors, more than 1,000 residents have completed my residents’ survey and I’ve visited dozens of local businesses and community organisations. I love living in East Cliff and I’m proud to call Bournemouth East my home.

I want to set out a clear plan showing you what I’ll fight for – based on what tens of thousands of you have told me is important to you – and how I’ll work to deliver it if I’m elected as your MP. I’ve spent my career getting things done and fighting people’s corner and, as your MP, I want to put that experience to good use to deliver for you and your family.

  • The Conservatives have crashed the economy and working people are paying the price. Everywhere I go residents and small business owners tell me they’re concerned about the cost of living crisis. Higher mortgage payments, soaring energy bills, and rising costs for food and fuel. Thousands of local families are struggling.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, I will:

    • Vote to bring in a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants so that their record profits can be used to ease the pressure on the cost of living.

    • Back action to help homeowners and renters feeling the crunch as a result of the cost of living crisis, including a package of mandatory mortgage measures from lenders to support homeowners and a new Private Renters Charter to make renting fairer and more affordable.

    • Fight to get homes in Bournemouth to the front of the queue for Labour’s Warm Homes Plan – a home insulation programme which will upgrade millions of homes in the next Parliament with energy efficiency measures and bring down energy bills by hundreds of pounds per year.

  • 14 years of Conservative mismanagement has left the NHS without the doctors and nurses it needs, and patients are paying the price. People are finding it impossible to register with a dentist, get a GP appointment or an operation when they need one. And in an emergency, there’s no guarantee an ambulance will arrive on time if one arrives at all. The longer the Conservatives are in power, the longer patients will wait.

    This is personal for me. My parents have been long-term patients of the NHS. As a former NHS Governor and Chief Executive of a mental health service working alongside the NHS, I see our most treasured institution being let down.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, I will:

    • Vote for Labour’s plan to cut waiting times by paying NHS staff extra to deliver 2 million more appointments and operations a year on evenings and weekends in the short term and by giving the NHS the staff and technology it needs in the longer term, including lifting the cap on medical school places and doubling the number of scanners, so patients with conditions like cancer are diagnosed earlier, giving them the best chance of survival.

    • Back promised emergency investment to create 700,000 new NHS dental appointments in the short term and reform the NHS dentistry contract and bring more NHS dentists to Bournemouth in the longer term.

    • Bring back the family doctor, so patients can easily book appointments to see the doctor they want, in the manner they choose – whether it’s face-to-face, over the phone, or online.

    • Work with government, local NHS providers and universities to increase the number of medical school places offered locally, so we can train more doctors here to work here.

    • Ensure mental health is treated as seriously as physical health, with Labour’s plan to recruit an extra 8,500 mental health professionals working in communities and schools to bring down waiting times for mental health support.

  • Bournemouth is brilliant, but we’re being held back. We have immense potential and, even in challenging times, our businesses are leading the way.

    Our economy excels in finance, higher education, and hospitality - but it has nothing to do with this Government, it has everything to do with you. We have the potential to strengthen these sectors and lead the world in the new and growing industries of the future.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, I will:

    • Deliver a plan for long-term jobs that empowers local leaders and unleashes local enterprise.

    • Get Bournemouth and Britain building again by reforming planning laws to kickstart 1.5 million new homes, transport, clean energy, and new industries in all parts of the country.

    • Back Bournemouth’s businesses with a new industrial strategy created in partnership with business to maximise Britain’s strengths in life sciences, digital, creative, financial industries, clean power and automotive sectors.

    • Create a National Wealth Fund to unlock billions of pounds of private investment, crowding in three times the amount of public investment.

    • A new generation of Technical Excellence Colleges and support to Bournemouth and Poole College, offering more high quality apprenticeships and training opportunities tailored to local jobs.

    • Make Work Pay by introducing a new deal for working people and delivering a genuine living wage, banning zero hours contracts and ending fire and rehire.

    • Put economic stability first by introducing a new fiscal lock to bring economic security back to our national and family finances.

  • Under the Conservatives, seeing the police on your street is a thing of the past, anti-social behaviour and drug-related crime is rife, and crimes go unsolved. Criminals have never had it so good.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, I will:

    • Vote for Labour’s plan to put 13,000 officers back on the streets across the country and work to make sure we get our fair share here in Bournemouth.

    • Work with the police and council to turbo charge the targeted anti-social behaviour operations, with a more regular, visible policing presence and a zero tolerance approach to stamp out anti-social behaviour and make our streets safer for residents and visitors.

    • Support Labour’s plan to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade.

  • Our town centre is on its knees after 14 years of cuts to council funding and a lack of planning to support the high street from the government.

    Businesses are struggling with rising costs and lower footfall and more close every week. I won’t accept that decline is inevitable.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, our local council and with businesses, I will:

    • Vote for Labour’s plan to scrap business rates and introduce a fairer system which supports small businesses to grow.

    • Work to develop masterplans for our town centre to bring it back to life.

    • Fight to secure meaningful investment from government and the private sector to deliver plans by championing our area at every opportunity.

    • Work to improve public transport links into our town centre to make it easier to get into town without a car.

    • Tackle anti-social behaviour to make our town centres safer.

  • I have a national profile for climate leadership. As your MP I would help to create a decade of good green jobs, modern manufacturing, and growth not only in our economy but in our ambitions.

    Rishi Sunak’s green u-turns are costing businesses green growth. We’re way off track on our climate goals to protect our planet for future generations.

    I have attracted tens of millions of pounds of green investment in the world’s largest hybrid battery, the country’s largest EV charging hub, the retrofitting of people’s homes, and the country’s largest community-owned solar farm.

    As your MP, working with a Labour Government, our local council and with businesses, I will:

    • Create a Zero Carbon partnership of anchor institutions and employers and emitters. My MP’s office would convene this new partnership and I would chair it to bring much-needed investment to town to decarbonise.

    • Renew a science-based roadmap to zero carbon that shows which sectors are the highest emitters and target decarbonisation at them.

    • Promote more renewable energy generation that’s community owned by having our MP’s office work alongside community groups to access guidance and money.

    • Launch a biodiversity scheme so communities can increase their tree cover. And I’ll seek to support communities in hardship to increace tree cover because they should have access to greenery on their doorstep.

    • We’ll install more public EV chargers but, recognising that EVs aren’t the silver bullet, we will promote sustainable and active travel.

    • We’ll work with the council to increase the energy efficiency of buildings, especially homes as part of our effort to improve housing for all.

    • I’ll work hard to bring in the investment for a 100% electric bus fleet to stop air pollution and climate change.

    • I’ll bring investment to the town to develop a large population sized battery so whatever additional renewable energy gets generated locally can be stored here and released as needed.