John Cryer is the Labour Party candidate standing for the Leyton and Wanstead constituency at this month’s General Election. Here’s why he thinks he deserves your vote on 12 December
So, the country is going to the polls again. With Brexitmania dominating everything, you could be forgiven for forgetting that General Elections are about more than just one issue. However, the winning party will govern for the next five years and will be responsible for our health, our children’s education, our rights at work, transport and so much more.
Brexit, of course, touches on all of these issues, and it will quite rightly be high up on every voter’s agenda when they decide in which box to put their cross.
The Labour Party is the only one of the major national parties pledging a second referendum, with an option to remain. Even as an outspoken Eurosceptic, the experience of the last three and a half years has convinced me that the only way for us to come back together as a country is to ask the public to vote again.
Beyond the end of this interminable debate, the next government will be stewarding the institutions we all rely on. The Johnson government’s Brexit proposals pose a unique threat to our NHS, which the Trump administration is currently eyeing like a pig on a spit. A Labour government would reverse privatisations in the health service and restore confidence in our most precious institution.
Labour will make funding available and back the police to do their job. While I have been representing this area, this has become an issue especially close to my heart. Too many times this year I have had to ask the Home Secretary to set out the government’s strategy to address knife crime and it has been painfully clear they have no answer. The simple truth is that cuts to police numbers have made it impossible for them to do their job, either on violence or burglaries.
As well as supporting this agenda, I will continue working on the issues that matter to you. Recently, I have been fighting with local campaigners on issues like the expansion of City Airport, excessive noise from the Central Line, step-free access at stations and more. I listened to residents’ deep concerns about the environmental impact of a planned music festival on Wanstead Flats and lobbied the City of London Corporation on their behalf. That festival will not now go ahead.
We have had over three years of a zombie Tory government too stymied by its own inability to resolve Brexit to deliver any legislative programme at all. I hope you will place your faith in me and Labour to move forward with an agenda for real change.
