If you are undecided about which candidate to support on July 4 in Peterborough, 5 of those on the ballot paper spoke at a hustings in St John’s Church this week. CambsNews filmed the entire debate which is available on our YouTube channel (the link is below).
The line-up:
Paul Bristow who has been MP for the past four and a half years for Conservative.
Andrew Pakes representing the Labour and Co-operative Party.
Nick Sandford representing the Liberal Democrats.
Nicola Day representing the Green Party.
Sue Morris representing Reform UK.
Here is how each candidate introduced themselves:
Paul Bristow.
My parents moved to Peterborough in 1985 to work as nurses in our local NHS. And I’ve been your member of Parliament since 2019.
I’m incredibly proud to be an approachable, highly visible, and activist member of Parliament. It’s something that I’m incredibly proud of.
Recently we’ve had two Labour MPs, one who was sent to prison, another one who was sent for anti-racism training. Neither did much for Peterborough. But myself, I’ve got £125 million for our city, for building a brand-new NHS community diagnostic centre in our city centre. We’ve got 50 extra police officers.
We’re building a £48 million brand new station quarter on the other side of our city centre. And this morning we were in our university, built through levelling up. This is a record that I’m incredibly proud to have delivered.
And I stand before you again tonight wanting to be your MP for another term. And I promise you I’ll give you that track record of being a highly high profile, approachable, visible MP. And I will continue to get things done for Peterborough.
Andrew Pakes.
I’m the Labour and Co-operative Parliamentary candidate in this election. I live near Central Park in the city centre. I love the diversity of our city. I love the potential of our city.
Picture by Terry Harris.
I’m standing because I believe we can do better. Just like most people in this room, I am fed up. I am fed up of waiting from 8am to try and get a doctor’s appointment.
I am fed up that we don’t have any NHS dentists left in this city taking on NHS patients. I am fed up that we have record NHS waiting lists, that mortgages have gone up, that crime has gone up, that shops have left the city centre and we have now become something that makes life harder.
I’m standing because I believe in change. I’m standing because I believe we can do better.
The words you will hear from me in this campaign in the future are us, together, we. You will never hear me saying this is about my city or I.
We make places better by working together. I wish to be a candidate of the community and an MP for all of this city. In a few days’ time, the power is in your hands. We have the chance to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos and we have a chance for a fresh start in Peterborough and around this country.
Nick Sandford
I’m standing as a Liberal Democrat candidate. I have lived in Peterborough since 1984. In so many ways, things in our country are broken. The economy, the National Health Service, the climate, the housing market. All of the prices after 14 years of the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have destroyed our relationship with our close trading partners.
We’ve got a political system that is simply not fit for purpose.
So today, as a Liberal Democrat, we want to put forward a fair deal for Peterborough and a fair deal for the country. We want a fair deal for public services.
We’ve put health at the forefront of our manifesto. We want to approve 8,000 new GPs and give everybody free personal care. A fair deal for the economy. Everybody should pay tax according to their ability to pay.
We need to invest in renewable power and insulation so that people can afford to live in their homes.
A fair deal for the environment where we penalise large water companies for dumping sewage and polluting our water courses.
If you support a fair deal for Peterborough and a fair deal for the country, please give us your support.
Nicola Day
I have lived in Peterborough most of my whole life, since the age of four months old, when my dad got work here electrifying railways.
I live in Millfield and brought my son up in this area and teach in local schools. I’ve already served Peterborough as a city councillor and in the Green Party group.
I have experience of already implementing change and playing in new policies.
I will be a strong voice for Peterborough in Westminster as I won’t be told what to do and say by party bosses. I’ll have mentors, but I won’t be dictated to.
The Green Party pledged to tackle the housing crisis by building 150,000 council homes per year. We would end the right to buy on this stock of housing so that these homes could remain in communities forever.
We would introduce a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires, £70 billion which we would use to invest in the NHS, which is currently on its knees and needs to be up to standard.
We would invest to train and retain and improve staff and pay the staff fairly. We would also clean up our rivers and seas, sewages be instilled into our very own river Nene and numerous points.
The Green Party would bring water companies back into public ownership so that profits could be put back into the infrastructure.
I know that people in Peterborough share a vision of a future where our country’s wealth is put to work, where we invest in better public resources, where we tackle the climate crisis, where we’re looking at more productive and fulfilling employment and a restored natural world with clean rivers.
For real hope and real change, vote Green on the 4th of July.
Sue Morris
I’m Sue Morris and I’m proud to represent Reform UK. I joined them about three years ago. And what I’m very proud of the party is that it started out putting together its principles.
They announced them in conference a couple of years ago. All of the party’s policies have been developed from principle by groups of people who have volunteered and know enough to actually create something very special and common sense who have volunteered and known enough to actually create something very special and common sense.
They’ve also put together a contract with the people which you can find on the website and download, and it gives a lot of detail about things.
Personally, I’ve been a partner with my husband in a small business for the last 25 years so I know a lot about struggling with short amounts of money, trying to build something up and also our company is a small print company so we need to support a lot of people from very many different backgrounds and that’s given a great appreciation for the sort of people who go out there and earn a living and raise families.
The chair was local broadcaster Kev Lawrence
