General Election 2024: Meet the candidates of New Forest East
The A&T has invited all candidates in New Forest East, New Forest West and Christchurch constituencies to tell readers their views on local issues and why voters should put an X by their name on 4th July.
Here it’s the turn of New Forest East candidates.
Simon King
GREEN
WITH a cost-of-living crisis, failing public services, soaring NHS waiting lists, sewage in our rivers and energy prices rising we have been failed by this government and all the major parties.
With many engaging in tit-for-tat politics, attacking other parties and undermining public confidence in the integrity of politicians, the last thing the New Forest needs is another out-of-touch politician who’ll just do what their central party tells them.
We need to do things better, and elect someone who can and will represent everyone – “a candidate to unite behind”. With my extensive business experience I will be that person, listening and acting for all – however you may have voted in the past.
I will represent and work to unite everyone. I promise to listen to and represent you. A vote for me is a vote for community, unity, action, hope and change.
I stand for a brighter, stronger future. Improving the standard of living for local people through economic competence, well-paid jobs in green growth industries, control of energy prices and everyone paying their fair share.
We need faster, safer healthcare. Proper funding to reduce NHS waiting lists and A&E waiting times, a functioning integrated social care system, NHS workers who are valued and healthy local environments.
Green MPs will lead the drive for a safe, warm home for everyone. Ending the housing crisis, including protection for renters and transforming planning so that new developments come with great community services and the infrastructure they need.
The Green Party is committed to bringing water companies back into public ownership, so they’re run for people not profit. Protecting our seas and rivers from sewage dumping, defending nature and our great outdoors.
And as you’d expect, I’ll protect our beautiful and unique environment.
I’ve held senior global roles in multi-national businesses. I understand how to collaborate, cooperate and get things done. All the polls show that Labour will win nationally, but they won’t win here, so please vote for someone who’ll hold the government to account, unite people and deliver real hope, real change and real action.
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Prof Andrew Knight
ANIMAL WELFARE
AFTER qualifying as a veterinarian in Australia, I moved to the UK and spent a decade caring for dogs and cats before being recruited to teach at a veterinary school. In 2015, I was asked to establish the University of Winchester Centre for Animal Welfare, which became one of the university’s largest and most active centres. I now speak and write on animal welfare issues nationally and internationally, and I regularly work with charities to advance the welfare of animals.
The connections between food systems, intensive farming and environmental degradation are becoming increasingly important, and have increasingly become a focus for my research.
I’m very fortunate to live close to the New Forest, and I love to unwind by jogging and walking through its unique scenery and picturesque towns. I’m acutely aware of the need to protect this unique terrain, and the many species who call it home.
As an MP for New Forest East, ensuring a liveable future for both current and future generations would be a key focus and, to that end, I’d ensure the biodiversity and climate crises are prioritised in decision-making.
I’d take action to protect the New Forest’s unique wildlife and animals, working to reduce traffic speeds in key areas, the accidental killing by drivers of ponies and other animals, wildlife crime, over-grazing and hedgerow declines. I’d also stand up to those polluting local rivers and streams.
Looking wider afield, I’d spearhead measures to improve human and planet health, and save NHS funds, by leading an urgent transition towards healthy and sustainable plant-based diets, whilst supporting other measures also proven to improve public health. Prevention is always far better than cure, and is also more cost-effective.
Finally, I’d advocate for a wide range of measures to better protect our farmed and companion animals, and the end of animal use in research, testing and entertainment.
I hope New Forest East voters will show their support for a fairer, more sustainable future for all – people, animals and the planet – by voting for Animal Welfare Party on 4th July.
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Sir Julian Lewis
CONSERVATIVE
MANY recent MPs are apparently abandoning the House of Commons for fear of ending up on the opposition benches. I am not tempted to follow them. In a democracy, any new government is subjected to trenchant daily criticism by its political opponents from the moment it is elected. This provides a safeguard against abuse of power and a deterrent against poor performance. The benefits of such interaction should not be undervalued.
Whatever the result on 4th July, I fully intend, if re-elected, to continue to work on a cross-party basis where the defence of the United Kingdom is concerned. My ability to work with other pro-Nato politicians, irrespective of party, led me to become the first person ever to chair both the Defence Select Committee and the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament. With war raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, a non-partisan approach here in the UK is more vital than ever.
Despite such a grim international outlook, an effective MP must also deal with local and regional issues as well as individual constituents’ problems. My Parliamentary office has always been in New Forest East, rather than in Westminster, in order to maximise the help my staff and I can offer. The “Letters of Thanks” section of my website (www.julianlewis.net) sets out numerous examples of appreciation, from hundreds of local people, of our efforts on their behalf.
Periodically, substantial threats to the New Forest and its way of life must be fended off: in the early days, we were told that the Port of Southampton would die if Dibden Bay did not become a huge container port. We blocked that development, after a six-year campaign, and Southampton Port continues to thrive. You can be sure that the Solent Freeport scheme — though most welcome in principle — will be carefully scrutinised for environmental impact. Similarly, I was pleased to play a key role in promoting the Havant Thicket Reservoir alternative to the plan to site an inappropriate desalination plant at Ashlett Creek.
My detailed election literature will soon be available. Please read it before deciding how to vote.
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Mad Hatter
MONSTER RAVING LOONY
I FELT I had no one to vote for, that no party represented my views. There is no box on the ballot paper marked ‘none of the above’. So this bloke from Lyndhurst decided to become Mad Hatter, the Monster Raving Loony candidate.
The Loony party seeks to highlight the ridiculousness of some of the other parties’ promises and pledges by proposing our own policies that will clearly also never be enacted.
Many have derided the Loonys as being an affront to the electoral system, as if we are somehow disrespecting the institutions of democracy, but we are proof that any one of us can pay a £500 deposit, put yourself to the electorate and, if successful, sit in parliament. I think that is an absolute privilege and something that we should not take for granted. It is something to be celebrated and that should involve a bit of fun.
It was the Loonys who first introduced rosettes, T-shirts with slogans and music to accompany campaigning. Now all the other parties are at it. So enjoy the election, get involved, have some fun!
Please don’t think Loonys have nothing to offer. Ideas that were first put forward by us include:
• Passports for pets
• Local and commercial radio stations
• Votes for 18-year-olds
• All-day pub opening
Let this be the first constituency where a Loony gets enough votes to retain his £500 deposit. New Forest East could go down in history! It would send a huge signal that something has to change.
Rather than spoiling a ballot paper, or not getting involved, register your disapproval by voting Loony. If the turnout increases because of a little bit of lunacy, surely that’s a good thing.
I am not here to criticise the other candidates. If what you read from one of them makes perfect sense to you, or fills you with confidence for the future, then by all means tick their box. Otherwise, vote Mad Hatter
Think of voting for Loony as ticking the ‘none of the above’ box.
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Sasjkia Otto
LABOUR
NEW Forest East cannot afford five more years under the Tories. The 2019 general election happened just a month before the UK first saw Covid-19. Not a single person here is untouched by the chaos resulting from government decisions since then. But we’ve been let down for much longer.
Labour is the only party that can offer a fresh start to New Forest East. We’re the tactical vote to beat the Tories. But also the right one to get our future back. Labour has a robust and fully costed plan to make life better for families, students, workers and pensioners.
This is an historic opportunity to put a voice in parliament who can make this plan work for you. I have led teams in government bringing infrastructure and public services to neglected communities, worked with multinationals to protect our environment, and developed strategies to improve work and retirement.
As your MP, I will listen to you, bring new ideas, and work with you on five priorities for New Forest East.
1) Improve local health and care services: Stop GP closures and bring more preventive services and health centres into the community – with GPs, physiotherapists, care workers and mental health specialists together under one roof. Introduce a national care service.
2) Extend world-class childcare and education: Bring more affordable, high-quality childcare into the community. Get more teachers where they are needed, working under decent conditions. Address the symptoms and causes of mental ill-health for young people.
3) Protect our environment: Remove sewage from our rivers by holding water companies accountable. Bring air quality to healthy levels by tackling shipping and traffic pollution. Make GB energy work while protecting local jobs.
4) Support workers and the self-employed to thrive: Support employers and workers to make work pay. Introduce better rights and protections for the self-employed. Reform business rates, tackle late payments and bring more funding to local businesses.
5) Protect retirement incomes: Protect the triple-lock state pension guarantee, protect pensioners from the cost-of-living crisis, and ensure pension funds are resilient and continue to grow so everybody is guaranteed security in retirement.
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Caroline Rackham
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
I AM a local town and district councillor and member of the New Forest National Park Authority. I am currently chair of Totton and Eling Town Council and work hard with Lib Dem colleagues to make sure the area gets the best from all the developments like the Freeport, work on the A326 and the Fawley development.
I’ve spoken to lots of residents locally via social media, on doorsteps and through email to make sure that my priorities align with what people want locally. We have a strong team of Lib Dem councillors locally now and we all work really hard for residents.
I am a local champion whose family has lived in the area for generations. I live in the house my mother grew up in and it’s amazing how life has changed across those generations, but we face so many challenges with the cost-of-living crisis, a downgraded NHS and issues with the environment. I particularly worry for future generations and how they’ll be able to live here.
My priorities for this election are the cost-of-living crisis, the NHS – which includes the mental health system, GPs and dentistry – and also how to stop the ‘legal’ dumping of sewage into our rivers.
We have areas of terrible poverty, particularly for children, so we need real measures like free school meals for all primary-age children and investment in jobs that will pay such as renewable energy production. We need to make sure that help with mental health is available from school age and that everyone is able to see a GP within seven days.
I am one of 10 Lib Dem district councillors in the New forest East constituency. We’ve seen locally how the Lib Dems are the only party with enough support to make a change of MP really happen. For a fairer New Forest.
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Roy Swales
REFORM UK
MY wife is a clinical lead for the NHS, and I work in a physiotherapy team for the NHS. I spent many months working at Lymington hospital on the stroke unit where the staff provide wonderful care for the people of the New forest. It remains a fine example of a model community hospital.
I have been a soldier and served my country for many years. I was a police officer and when retired worked for the NHS in SCAS and retrained in physiotherapy.
The army taught me teamwork, striving for a common purpose, discipline, leadership and respect for others and that power and authority should be used wisely and fairly.
The police taught me why people behave in the ways they do, that we are all different and have so many different needs.
The NHS taught me how vital its existence is for the lives of ordinary folk and that as a society we must care for those less able than ourselves.
Having children taught me to look at things differently to see the world through a different lens.
In my view, it is arrogant and un-democratic to peddle the argument that you only have two choices, you do not. Eighty years ago our countrymen set out to free Europe from oppression and deliver democracy, to give people real choices not just this or that. You have a choice, you have a voice and you should not be afraid to use it to make a difference despite those who would try to shout you down.
A vote for me will not let Labour in, it will strengthen the opposition to Labour, and we will need it.
Many of us want to make this country of ours a better place to live and work and raise our children in safety and security, but there are those who do not. Remember, this election isn’t for you, it’s for your children and your grandchildren, and their futures.
I have done my bit for this country, will you do the same? Use your vote, you earned it.
