The choice at this election is increasingly clear – a Labour supermajority with no meaningful opposition, or a local Conservative MP who will speak truth to power and ensure Woking’s voice is heard.
If you give Keir Starmer a blank cheque everyone pays the price. As night follows day, Labour will raise your taxes. Even the family home is under threat from Labour tax hikes.
The Lib Dems won’t be any help, as their promises imply even higher taxes than Labour. Nor will Reform, who will not win any more than a handful of seats.
Over the years, I have achieved record amounts of investment in Woking and our villages. I successfully fought for, and then doubled the budget for, the new state-of-the-art diagnostic centre that will shortly open at Woking Community Hospital. This fantastic local NHS facility will save Woking residents more than 30,000 trips a year to Ashford or St. Peter’s Hospitals for important tests and scans.
I took the fight to the Post Office, following Seema Misra, the former West Byfleet sub-postmistress, being wrongly convicted of “stealing” £75,000. Seema and I demanded an inquiry into the faulty IT system but were disgracefully rebuffed by the then Post Office Minister (who is now the Lib Dem leader).
I made sure that Seema, who was pregnant, got the medical help she needed in jail then helped her overturn her conviction.
I’ve fought to protect our green spaces, leading the fight against illogical developments on our green belt. I am pleased to have saved several areas via successful petitions and lobbying, and I continue to fight to save the land near West Hall.
When the Conservatives came into power in 2010, only 67% of Woking’s schools were good or outstanding – today that figure is 86%. And following our educational reforms, England’s primary school-aged children are the best readers in the western world.
Since 2019, we have recruited 20,000 police officers, and we’ve promised to recruit a further 8,000 full-time, fully warranted police officers to ensure a new police officer for every neighbourhood and clamp down on anti-social behaviour.
We will cut tax for workers by taking another 2p off employee National Insurance so that we will have halved it from 12 per cent at the beginning of this year to 6 per cent by April 2027, a total tax cut of £1,350 for the average worker on £35,000.
And we’re supporting pensioners with the new Triple Lock Plus, guaranteeing that both state pension and tax-free allowance for pensioners always rise with the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5 per cent – so the new state pension doesn’t get dragged into income tax.
Labour pose a tax risk to almost every working family in Woking, and Labour is eyeing further taxes on family homes, capital gains and inheritance.
More than ever, Woking residents will need strong representation in Parliament, and I will be that strong voice.