Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called a General Election for Thursday July 4, ending months of speculation about when he will go to the country.
Over the past two months, theIndie has invited the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and Reform UK candidates for Hertford and Stortford to introduce themselves to our readers before the campaign proper began, writing on any subject they chose.
From June 5, we will be asking them all to answer the same key questions and set out their stances on the crunch issues identified by voters in Hertford and Stortford. Then they will have a chance to make a final pitch to residents to sum up why they should be our next MP – and why their party should form the next Government.
Cllr Josh Dean, Labour candidate for Hertford and Stortford and a member of Hertford Town Council, writes...
I was delighted to see strong local election results for the Labour Party across the country at the start of the month, with more councils now Labour-run than at any time since 2002.
Although there were no elections in East Herts – other than to elect Hertfordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – in neighbouring Welwyn Hatfield, Labour is now the largest party on the borough council, and Labour now holds the Bedfordshire and Norfolk PCCs.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives lost 10 seats on North Herts District Council and eight seats on Stevenage Borough Council, leaving them with just one councillor in Stevenage.
Nationally, Labour won the Blackpool South by-election with the third largest swing to us from the Conservatives since 1945. It also won eight of nine Combined Authority Mayors, including the new positions of East Midlands and York & North Yorkshire, and gaining the West Midlands from the Conservative incumbent.
The message from these results is clear: Britain wants change.
Across the country, voters are turning to a Labour Party that’s back in the service of working people. People want to put an end to 14 years of Conservative chaos and decline, turn the page and start to rebuild.
With a hard-working local Labour MP working with the next Labour Government, we can tackle the challenges facing our community and make Hertford and Stortford an even better place to live, work and learn.
My promise to you is that if I am privileged enough to be elected as your MP, making sure that we deliver for you and your family will be my driving mission.
This column was originally published in the Bishop’s Stortford Independent of May 15.