“It is a huge honour to be Labour’s candidate in my home town of Stevenage for the 2017 General Election.

I am incredibly proud of Stevenage and of our people. We need a Labour government now more than ever so that we can build a country that works for everyone and not just for a privileged few.

I want to be the Labour MP for Stevenage because we need an MP who will stand up for our town, who has a record of action and clear promises of delivery for the future.

I was born and raised in Stevenage growing up in Roebuck and Chells, and my three children grew up here, too. I attended Stevenage Girls School, then went on to work for British Aerospace, John Lewis and Herts Police. I gained my degree from the University of Hertfordshire, while working full time and raising a family. It has been my privilege to be a councillor in Stevenage for 20 years, and for the last ten of those years, I’ve also been leader of the council. This year, I was honoured to be awarded council leader of the year. I have also been a Hertfordshire county councillor since 2008. I am a volunteer at Stevenage Community Food Bank and the trustee of a small local education charity.

In my years as a councillor I have worked tirelessly to bring improvements to our area and to protect local people from the ravages of the Tory cuts. Under my leadership Stevenage has delivered more new council homes than anywhere in the Eastern region, successfully redeveloped a neighbourhood centre at Pin Green and achieved coveted ‘Green Flag’ status for three of our local parks. Working with our partners, we have developed our fabulous Business Technology Centre which has supported over 300 new start-up companies.

Our ‘Healthy Hub’ is working with Stevenage residents every day to help them recover from serious illness like cancer, heart attacks and strokes as well as helping them with smoking cessation, tackling obesity and providing mental health support. We know that it is a key priority of Stevenage people to see our town centre improved so we have worked with partners to bring over £30 million of funding to start the regeneration.

If I am elected as your MP, I will fight to ensure we get radiotherapy treatment at the Lister, a walk-in health facility in our regenerated Town Centre, the 2000 new council homes we need in the coming years to house our families, proper widening of the A1, support for our local businesses and for our young people to gain the skills to work in those businesses and sufficient police officers to reduce the levels of crime and disorder so we all feel safer.

Trust me with your vote, my heart is in Stevenage, I won’t let you down.”