Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for South Suffolk

About me

I’ve lived in South Suffolk for 25 years. Raising a family. Working in the NHS and local schools. Delivering public health services, teaching and helping people make music. I’ve also been a Labour activist for 20 years. Listening, campaigning, taking action. I understand the desperate state of our services. The need for secure jobs. The huge challenges facing our families, schools, businesses, farms, and environment. As your MP I promise to work tirelessly for change and a better South Suffolk.

What I stand for

I believe in a compassionate and hopeful Britain with an NHS and public services that really work and equality of opportunity for all. I want to protect our environment. I care deeply about fairness, about integrity and honesty in politics, and want an end to misrule and failure.

Working for you

As a Labour MP in a Labour government, I will fight for real and lasting improvements in our NHS, social care, education and the environment across South Suffolk. I will support our local high streets, farms and businesses and will promote public transport and social housing. I promise to listen and to work with you to find and deliver solutions that work across South Suffolk.

My priorities if elected

Supporting our farms, businesses & high streets
Real & lasting improvements in our NHS & social care
Tackling poverty & deprivation in or towns and villages
Supporting our schools & childcare
Better public transport
Protecting our environment

More about Emma

I have lived, worked and raised my family in this constituency for 25 years, and know it well. Over the last 30 years I have worked extensively in the NHS, local authorities and with voluntary organisations. I now work mostly as a community musician and teach in Suffolk state schools. After 14 years witnessing Tories undermine our public services, I understand at first-hand how hard it can be for social workers, nurses and teachers to deliver the services which they want to deliver and that we need to receive. And I also know how tough it can be for the most vulnerable in our society to receive even the most basic support.

My background in health and education helps me to understand how Tory policies are just piling up ever greater problems for the future. That’s why we need change now. It’s why I’m standing in South Suffolk. It’s not just because I love living here. I want our towns, villages and rural spaces to be connected communities in which all our families can thrive.

I’m standing for Labour, as I have before, because Labour is the only party founded on a shared desire for equality, opportunity and fairness. Wherever you live in South Suffolk, Labour is the only party that can form a government to make change that will benefit us all. Only Labour can bring about the changes we need in our environment: whether that’s making sure our rivers are safe to swim in or producing the clean energy we need to protect the climate and reduce our energy bills. It is only Labour that wants to make sure children in our state schools have the best start in life with secure and affordable childcare, and better access to vital services like speech and language therapy, dentistry and mental health support when they need it.

The shameless opportunism we’ve seen from so many Tories and their donors in recent years has increased cynicism in the ability of politics to change things for the better. Some of you may be wondering if your vote can make any difference. It can. Without voting, we have no say in who governs and what they do. I know, after more than 20 years as a Labour activist, and having worked in the NHS throughout the last Labour government, that together we can achieve positive things. We can change not only how well our public services deliver for us and our families and communities, but how we feel about where we live and about the choices and opportunities we create together. It will take time, but we need urgently to begin that process of change.

In South Suffolk, Labour has been a clear second to the Tories in the last three general elections. It’s very clear that the only way to defeat the Conservatives here is to vote Labour. So, let’s make that change happen, and start fixing 14 years of Tory failure.

If elected, I will prioritise work on social care, on improving access to healthcare, to restoring the mix of subjects and support our children need to thrive at school, and to protecting our environment. I will also support the farms and businesses on which so many livelihoods depend. I am known as someone who listens, who works well with other people, and gets things done. That task has never been more urgent.