Raising a family in the Fylde means this is personal. I’ve seen what’s not working and I want better for our area.

I live in Poulton with my wife, Melanie, and our two children.

This means that, for me, this is personal. I live in this constituency. It’s where I met my wife, where my son was born, where we’ve chosen to raise our family. I need local services to work and local decisions to be right as much as everyone here. I’ve seen the results of Tory misrule in our area: crumbling roads, fewer police, an ever-harder scramble to get a GP appointment. My daughter’s school has faced tighter and tighter budgets, resulting in fewer and fewer staff. Our public services need to reset, recover and rebuild. The Tories can only offer more decline, disruption and disappointment.

A passion for public service

In twenty years I’ve seen what works well and what needs to change. I’ll use all this experience to campaign for services that are more effective and more efficient.

My career has been in communications, mostly within the public sector. I’ve worked in local government in East Lancashire, for Network Rail and at two universities. For around ten years, I was an RAF reservist, serving in Afghanistan, during the UK’s 2011 operation in Libya, and as part of air security plan for the 2012 Olympics.

I’ve seen things work well and go badly. When debate turns to public services, they’re not an abstract concept, they’re things I’ve lived, things I know about, things I believe in.

When I work with a Labour government to restore our public services, I will bring the passion for public service that I have taken to work for more than twenty years.

Principles based on real experience

Tackling the Conservatives’ legacy of incompetence will take years, and we’re ready to start as soon as possible, with costed and funded plans.
We can do better, we must do better, and, with a Labour government, we will do better.

I’m passionate about the power of education and about increasing opportunities and improving lives for everyone. I know what it can do: my grandfather was born in a Bolton slum, and his father’s determination to get an education for his children meant Grandad was able to succeed and ensure his children and grandchildren were born into better lives.

Right now, too many people are being left behind, not only in education but in employment and in health. It’s appalling that children born to families in some parts of this constituency face around a decade less of healthy life than those born in the same hospitals to families living just a mile or two away. Giving everyone a genuine prospect of a long, healthy, prosperous life is about fairness and decency. Labour exists to tackle these inequalities and we will focus on this purpose.