Only Labour can replace the Tories and change lives for the better.
My priorities
In communities across Scotland and the UK there’s a growing sense that things can and should be better than this.
Here in Scotland we have two governments that are letting us down.
After well over a decade of the SNP and Tory governments people are asking: have our lives got better? Has Scotland changed for the better?
But we can offer the people of Livingston constituency hope and hard work to bring about change in our community.
Tackling the cost of living crisis
The cost-of-living crisis is a national emergency that needs a pandemic scale response.
It is impacting almost all of us. The poorest in our society are getting pushed to breaking point and I’ve met people who would normally see themselves as comfortable and they are struggling to make ends meet too.
Both our government’s inaction on the cost-of-living crisis has sent mortgages, the food shop and filling the car through the roof. People are being forced to make impossible choices, while oil and gas producers are benefiting and raking in record profits.
Good jobs you can raise a family on
The opportunity to get on is what everyone wants for their family – I know I want it for my boys. It is the reason I’m in politics and what drives me to make sure no one, anywhere in this country, is held back by their circumstances.
Young people are struggling to find decent jobs that pay – let alone get a foot on the housing ladder. The costs of childcare are extortionate, keeping the parents – often women – who want to work out of work.
With the right support from our MP there are many opportunities ahead for our local industries, SMEs and workers and I will work with businesses, unions and co-operatives to help make sure that our local people and towns benefit from them.
Town Centre’s are vital to our economic and social wellbeing, I’ve written here on what I think needs to be revitalise them:
Tackling climate change, creating jobs for the future
The Tories and SNP are failing on climate change and to create the jobs for the future.
The costs of inaction on climate change today will mean far greater costs tomorrow. I refuse to leave our children to pick up the pieces of our failure.
The largest offshore wind farm in Scotland has its blades made not in Scotland but thousands of miles away because British and Scottish businesses are falling behind in a global race for new industries.
Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will tackle climate change and deliver economic growth.
I will fight to make sure local businesses and workers get a fair deal from this fund so we create high skilled jobs right here.
I’ve written about this in the Scotsman:
Rebuilding our public services
I believe that strong public services are the backbone of any decent society.
We need to properly fund our NHS and schools – and pay our frontline workers fairly.
Our councils are being asked to do more with less year, after year, after year. It is only by electing a Labour government will they get the investment they need.
We need doctors and nurses more than the richest need a tax cut. We must commit to deliver better pay, terms and conditions for care workers. We cannot accept poverty and misery as the price worth paying for a society that redistributes wealth, but from the poorest to the wealthiest.
We must build a country where everyone is entitled to dignity and access to world class public services.