3,700 words: my views worth sharing
As part of the East Wight Primary initiative, 3 candidates in the IW East constituency were tasked with answering a number of questions in 300 words or less. That’s a mini dissertation!
So I thought it was worth sharing my answers here for you, for reference and any interest.
Why do you believe that you would be the most likely candidate to defeat the Conservatives in East Wight?.
I am the only candidate who has supported the East Wight Primary from the start until the end. Whilst the Labour and LibDem candidates refused/ stopped participating, I put the Isle of Wight first before national advice and was looking forward the ‘Q&A’ meetings in March as part of the original plan. Putting forward a clear, succinct argument seems to be something I do quite well – I certainly enjoy it and I know that I would hold my own in the House of Commons.
It would be the absolute honour of my life to serve islanders as their MP – and the first female MP that the Island has ever returned in its history. As a Green MP I would not be whipped by my party: I would be free to vote first and foremost for what is best for the Isle of Wight. I know many previously Conservative and Labour voters who have already switched to Green for this election, and are proudly displaying their posters and signs in East Wight. With the support of the good people of the East Wight Primary I know that this message will spread far and wide.
I have only been in one political party and I have risen to a national level within this party. I sat on the National Executive (from 2020-23) and I know my party leaders – present and past – very well and they know me. I am ready to take my place at Westminster with the group of new Green MPs who I know I will work well with.
I am the only candidate with a national profile as well as local: I’m the national education spokesperson for the Green Party (since 2016) and have already shared platforms in Westminster with Angela Rayner, Layla Moran and Jeremy Corbyn.
Locally I am a familiar figure for islanders: I rarely have to explain who I am (which is always strange!). My job as a teacher has stopped me from being a IW Councillor but I volunteer for a range of organisations and campaigns – I will take this work ethic even further in the role as MP for IW East.
I will give you data and statistics but it is worth mentioning that the constituency-level ‘polls’ that are shared are from MRP data. They are not local polls. People in IW East have not been polled by any organisation for this election. The data available is national data extrapolated to the constituencies based on their demographic profile and assuming that people will vote in the same way across the country. We are Islanders – and we don’t vote in the same way as the rest of the country!
In the 2015 General Election the Green vote on the island rose exponentially from 900 to 9,400 when I first stood and it has increased even further since then. In 2019 it was the third highest Green Party vote in the entire United Kingdom.
I’m ready for this – and the Conservatives know it.
Your top three policy priorities. Description of these policies should be clear and succinct, and focus on planned actions. 300 words maximum.
PUBLICLY RUN SERVICES – our NHS, water companies, rail, energy, schools should all be run by publicly accountable organisations. Both Labour and the Conservatives have pushed the country into a crisis in terms of access to health care and clean water, which are two basics of life. The nation’s transport and energy infrastructure are not fit for the challenges of the 21st century. Green MPs would work towards tougher regulation and ultimately public ownership of important infrastructure, both locally and nationally.
TACKLE THE HOUSING CRISIS – Data from the charity Shelter states that we have 668 people recorded as homeless on the island, with 398 children in temporary accommodation. I am certain that there are many hundreds more who are not recorded. This is a crisis, created by a reliance on private rentals, rise in second-homes, and building large, executive housing rather than affordable homes for islanders. The Green Party ‘Right homes, Right Place’ charter would create 100,000 new council homes, incentivise renovations and small developments, protect valuable green spaces, require extra GP places and bus services, introduce rent controls and end no-fault evictions. An excellent start!
ACTION ON CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY LOSS – The Green Party also have policies on climate and nature! And on the Isle of Wight we know why: the historic flooding in Ryde and Binstead, the landslips in Ventnor, the water pollution on our beaches are just some of the impacts of the climate crisis and lack of investment in public services. In addition, our unique island flora and fauna, as illustrated by our UNESCO Biosphere status, cannot be taken for granted. I support the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, drawing on expertise from across the island. As MP for IW East I would support a carbon tax and a Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill to reduce CO2 emissions.
1. Putting the Island at the forefront
What do you see as your biggest challenge if you were to be elected as East Wight’s first MP? Why?
So many challenges await – which is one of the biggest draws of the role of MP. As other teachers know, you do the job not because it is easy, but because it is hard (said JFK on why go to the moon….).
I honestly believe that one of the biggest challenges will be to rebuild hope. Our island has seen £93million in council funding cuts since 2010 as a consequence of Conservative government austerity. Even future Labour ministers have stated that they plan to continue with the Conservative fiscal plan. It is understandable that islanders think that nothing can change, that it’s pointless to believe in better, and so they accept stagnation and decline.
As MP for IW East I would work hard to overcome that – to bring hope. The Green Party slogan for this election is “Real Hope, Real Change” and that encapsulates the challenge ahead. A Green MP for the IW East on day one would really shake up perceptions of the island, put us on the map and highlight our positive stories of sustainability. We have some brilliant local businesses and manufacturers. We grow tasty and healthy food. We have recently received some significant funding for projects in Ryde (levelling up and Arts Council) and Ventnor (Exchange and Fringe) as well as huge potential for The Bay to make progress in terms of regeneration.
IW East is full of potential. As your MP I would relish the challenge to make progress on this, and demonstrate to islanders that hope is not only possible, but it is completely justified.
2. Education
Our children are our future. They are not currently being served well enough on the island as recent figures illustrate. What plans have you got to ensure that access, quality and results all improve if you get elected?
Access, quality and results are really important so that our young people can thrive as adults. But mental health, opportunities and resilience are also vital – and sadly they are not measured in school data and OFSTED reports.
I’ve been a secondary teacher for 25 years, a parent for nearly 18 years, and the Green Party’s national spokesperson for Education for the last 8 years. In this role I travel the country, giving speeches and meeting educators and telling them all about the fantastic Green Party education policies. They include: scrapping high stakes tests at primary school, abolishing OFSTED and reforming the curriculum to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
On the island we have too many spare places in our primary schools, and too few places which are suitable for our SEND students. This is linked to cuts to funding which have been catastrophic for SEND provision and to support small, local schools. And it’s part of a wider, demographic trend which we must tackle – that we must do more to encourage families and young people to make their homes here.
Recruitment and retention of good teachers - who are happy in their jobs and can raise standards – requires extra funding and modernisation of working practices. I would like to see every island teenager entitled to fully funded trips to the mainland, to help widen horizons. Plus lifelong learning supported to ensure that adult islanders can receive help with skills in literacy and numeracy. Not forgetting that the wider issue of economic deprivation, low paid work, ill health and quality of housing has an impact on educations standards: we have to tackle these wider social issues to raise standards in our schools.
(I could talk about education issues for hours)
3. Health care
Our NHS generally is in crisis. How will you address this unacceptable situation locally and nationally?
It really is a crisis – and it’s difficult to believe that this is not intentional. For 20 years we have seen privatisation of our health service, behind a ‘free at the point of use’ NHS branding. Huge amounts of our public money now goes to private health care businesses to deliver services, with the obvious profit motives. In addition, the various trusts and care boards make navigating the complex organisations very difficult.
Demands on GP services and hospital admissions are huge with waiting lists standing at over 7 million people. The vast majority of us support the principles of the NHS. So we have to get back to those foundational principles.
The Green Party believe in a publicly run and accountable NHS. As an MP candidate I have signed the “We Own It” pledge for the NHS. The private sector interest in the NHS does not stretch to the overburdened A&E, or training staff, or the difficult and expensive operations. It is the public sector who are having to take on the load of the costs of the NHS – and still even more money is being diverted towards the private sector.
We need to build capacity in our NHS so that our fantastic nurses, health assistants, doctors and surgeons can get on and do the best job they can. We must properly pay our doctors and nurses, so that they can afford to stay and work in the NHS. We must fight to keep our local GP practices (such as at Wootton Bridge). We must prioritise accessibility of services – through an affordable, frequent and reliable ferry service – so that all islanders can access cancer treatment (for example)
And we must do this through investing directly in the NHS, not through the fragmented private companies.
4. Social Care
What will you do to address the diminishing care home provision on the Island due to staff shortages?
Social care provision is broken, because it is not funded at a national level. Local government cuts have really put pressure on Adult Social Care provision – including respite, residential and care at home. For areas in the UK with a large elderly demographic – like the Isle of Wight – this burden can be an overwhelming part of the local budget (25% I believe). It is inefficient and unfair to rely on local councils to fund social care – a national system needs to be introduced.
In addition to this the rising costs of provision and the need to raise wages to the level of a Living Wage, plus general inflation levels, and the huge numbers of vacancies in the sector (thanks, Brexit) have led to the diminishing provision. 1.5 million people are employed in the social care sector – that is more than in the NHS. And yet social care is not widely discussed at schools or colleges as a viable career option. We won’t replace social care with AI or apps – we need caring humans to step forward. There needs to be a clearer career progression from school.
So it’s not as straightforward as to say “do this and it will be addressed”. Green Party members have passed policy to ensure that social care is publicly funded and on a par with the NHS. Need, not wealth should determine access. But this doesn’t solve the wider challenges when it comes to costs, wages, vacancies and skills. I firmly believe that the care sector needs to be promoted more at schools and seen as the vital industry it is. We realised during Covid that carers are key workers – we need to now invest more in the industry.
5. Dentistry
What do you plan to do to address the lack of NHS dentistry on the Island?
I bet we all have a story to tell about this – the lack of NHS dentists on the Isle of Wight has got increasingly worse and now it seems that NHS access is almost non-existent. Nationally there is a giant hole in provision – but it is particularly acute in more isolated areas such as the island.
And this really matters. Nationally, hospital staff have reported increased incidents of scurvy, sepsis and DIY dentistry – the health of your teeth is not just limited to your mouth. But neither of the two main parties come out of this well: The last Labour government introduced the dental contracts and then the coalition government made huge cuts to NHS dentistry budgets – over a third.
We need new dental contracts agreed. Simply put, dentists must be paid for the full costs of NHS dental treatment, and then it would be viable for them to do NHS work. Green Party prospective MPs have already made this an urgent priority for when they are elected.
6. How do you plan to address the current state of cross Solent travel?
The quality of our ferry service is at an all time low – unreliable, extortionate and infrequent. Just like the private water companies these businesses are run for corporate profit, not as a public service. Shiny new ferries and potential new companies will not fix this structural obstacle.
My first priority would be to escalate a Competition and Markets Authority case with a push towards strict regulation of prices, and a Public Service Obligation for the companies to deliver a frequent, reliable service. Alongside this I would pursue a public ownership model for cross-solent transport – either through nationalisation or through a community-led company.
I do not support the notion that competition between private companies – the situation we have now – will lead to cheaper and more reliable services. It does not. I congratulate the public – especially the Wightlink Users Group – for putting public pressure on the ferry companies recently to raise their game and reduce some costs for NHS passengers. But within a ‘dynamic’ ticket structure which leads to some tickets costing over £200 per journey this is unsustainable.
Decades of Conservative MPs – either in opposition or in government – have left us worse off than ever before. I was genuinely disappointed that the Labour candidate in the West was told by Keir Starmer that Labour ‘would ask the CMA to see whether intervention is needed’. The inevitable Labour government need to be much bolder on this issue – they should be looking at public ownership as a national need. As a Green MP I would be able to push Labour to be much bolder.
The island must have ferries which work for island residents, families and businesses, not overseas investors. We need an MP who truly believes this.
7. How would you seek to create more homes for Islanders whilst balancing the environmental costs of more buildings?
The shortage of appropriate, warm and affordable housing for islanders will be a priority for me as your MP. As a start we need to address the problems in the rental market – Green MPs would introduce rental controls and end no fault evictions. When I first came to the island 19 years ago I rented a winter let in Bonchurch, followed by a series of private rentals for the next 13 years. I know how it feels to struggle to afford the rent rises that can come – and since I bought my own home 5 years ago I know it has got a lot worse.
The building industry can have a big environmental cost – but it can also bring a big environmental benefit if regulated and supported with the environment in mind. The Green Party released their “Right homes, right place” charter last year to beat the housing crisis and protect our green spaces. I think it is a great model for housing across the country. Greens would use the taxation and planning system to incentivise renovation of existing buildings and also encourage small developments rather than big estates. Solar panels and heat pumps should be included on all new homes, with 100,000 new council homes to be built every year. And new developments should be located so that they do not have to rely on cars for transport.
Read more about the charter here https://greenparty.org.uk/news/2023/04/05/greens-call-for-right-homes,-right-place,-right-price-charter-to-beat-housing-crisis-and-protect-green-space/ ).
8. What are your plans for addressing the sewage discharges across the island
We are lucky to live in a part of the world where we can access the coast, beaches and open blue spaces so close to the home. Island life is wonderful – and swimming in the sea is such a tonic for the physical and mental wellbeing of residents and visitors alike. Organisations like Swim the Wight have done wonders to promote and support more islanders getting out into the sea.
And then – sewage discharges rose across the island. This is not only shown via the Surfers Against Sewage app (with East Wight particularly bad) but also in recorded hours of discharge. In 2023 alone over 38,000 hours of sewage were discharged into island waters. That is over 4 years of constant discharges in only 12 months. It’s completely unacceptable for most of us – but our previous MP has consistently voted against meaningful action.
Privatisation of our water companies has failed. The regulator – OFWAT – has failed. And now the infrastructure – the pipes, the drains – have failed. England is one of the only nations in the world where water is run entirely by private companies – and after a series of fines some of these companies are in a difficult financial position. Green MPs would vote to take these companies back into public ownership, where investment could reduce waste and sewage discharges.
But this doesn’t mean that as your MP I would only pursue nationalisation. There are many other actions to take – such as tougher regulation and much higher fines, partnerships with local authorities and mitigations in terms of planning and urban landscape. Practical solutions to manage surface water better, including SUDS schemes in our towns and water butts in our gardens, can also limit the extent of the problems.
9. How can the Isle of Wight and its residents be more resilient to the effects of climate change in relation to flooding and land slippage on the island?
Climate change is real. But it doesn’t mean that we are going to have hotter summers – we are also going to have wetter winters and unseasonable weather. The recent historical flooding and landslip events in East Wight and across the island are going to become more frequent, and on a bigger scale, if we do not limit the emissions of greenhouse gases through policies which lead us towards net zero emissions.
As MP for IW East I would support a Climate and Nature Bill alongside the other Green MPs to reduce emissions in the UK and keep temperature rises to below 1.5C. But we need to do much more. Green MPs would also support a £3billion Climate Adaptation Fund to support vulnerable communities in high risk areas, such as Ventnor, to protect and rebuild.
The flooding events across the Isle of Wight in October 2023 were devastating for many residents, businesses and wildlife – and it is clear that the risks are going to continue throughout the coming years. Sadly it showed that the Isle of Wight seemed ill-prepared to meet the scale of the weather crises which face us as the climate changes, and we must ramp up our management of these flooding events to protect property, life, infrastructure and our landscape.
The UK’s current climate targets do not reflect the urgency of the climate crisis or what is required by global justice. As MP for IW East I would push the government to transition to a zero-carbon society as soon as possible, and more than a decade ahead of 2050. Locally I would look to support and build upon the IW Council Climate and Environment Strategy, particularly community energy, transport and housing.
10. What is your position on calling for a ceasefire in Gaza?
I condemn the 7th October attacks and am firm about the unconditional release of the hostages. I have also called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire for many months - the Green Party were the first major party to do so. I have stood in the square in Newport most weekends alongside a group of islanders from all faiths who call for a ceasefire, condemn the plausible genocide in Gaza and have recognition for the Palestinian state.
I condemned the Hamas attacks but also condemn the war crimes carried out by Israel including the disproportionate killing of civilians and collective punishment of the Palestinian population by the denial of food, water and medicines.
Greens support South Africa's submission to the ICJ that Israel has committed genocide (on the grounds of collective punishment) and the calls for arrests of Israeli and Hamas leaders by the prosecutor of the ICC. Greens have also called for the Met to investigate government ministers for possible complicity in war crimes by continuing to supply weapons to Israel.
I believe there is no military solution to the Israel-Palestine issue. There must be a political solution that allows for the security and protection of human rights of Israelis and Palestinians based on the end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories' after 'human rights of Israelis and Palestinians. I don’t believe that the current Israeli government will willingly agree to such a settlement. There will therefore need to be pressure, beyond mere rhetoric, to make Israel accede. This may include sanctions and boycotts. Greens have in addition called for personal sanctions such as travel bans on the Israeli leadership who have committed war crimes.
11. How do you (or your party) propose to arrange safe routes for those seeking asylum and manage the small boats issue?
How we treat refugees and those seeking asylum really reflects upon our character as a nation. A confident, compassionate nation would welcome refugees with open arms. The fact that the most vulnerable people in the world, fleeing conflict, torture and climate disaster, are being used as a political football for Reform and the Conservatives (and Labour to an extent) deeply upsets me.
Greens recognise that no person is ‘illegal’ and that those who are packing themselves into small boats for the dangerous journey across the channel are doing so out of absolute desperation. Desperation because of the situation in their birth country. But also desperation because this government have taken away safe and legal routes for them to apply to come to the UK.
Green MPs would prioritise establishing safe and legal routes, and fair and fast processing rather than blaming refugees for the challenges in society. We would also propose an increase in the overseas aid budget to support lower income nations and help people to stay in their home communities.
As the climate crisis increases, and sea levels rise and desertification spreads, and the political disruption that results, we will inevitably see rising levels of displaced people. This is why it is critical for politicians across the globe to have a long term and compassionate strategy to deal with those seeking asylum. Pulling up the drawbridge and leaving the rest of Europe to cope is unfair and unsustainable.