I'm so proud to have been reselected to be the Labour candidate for Weaver Vale this coming election.

As a local man with a young family, I understand the pressures constituents face every day. With 150 police officers lost from our streets, cuts from local schools since 2015, in Cheshire West and Chester a loss of £79 million in funding, and schools in Halton £29 million and attempts to privatise local NHS services, this government has abandoned ordinary people. It doesn't have to be like this. I will continue to fight for more investment for our police, for our schools, and to keep the NHS out of private hands.

In the last two and a half years I’ve stopped the creeping privatisation in our NHS by reversing planned charges at Halton Hospital and plans to outsource urgent care have been abandoned. Additionally, the Tories were warned that social care was in crisis, but they still cut £8 billion from social care budgets. Now one million people are not getting the care they need.

I've been extremely active in the campaign against fracking both since, and before, I was elected to office. I have visited the site of fracking in Lancashire and also attended demonstrations both locally and in Westminster, raised the issue with Ministers and with the Prime Minister at PMQs.

I’m also hugely concerned about the environmental impact of another Conservative Government. We face a climate emergency, but the Tories have continued with a reckless approach to our natural world. What’s more, this week we found out they have hired a fracking lobbyist to write their manifesto. Our local environment and global climate are not safe in Conservative party hands.

I have championed the cause of local residents against the outrage of the leasehold scandal on new properties. This has secured an inquiry into the whole affair – and the fight goes on! I have continued to raise the issue at every opportunity - even telling Boris to get a grip on the scandal in Prime Minister's Questions.

We need a Labour Government now more than ever. I hope you can stand with me as we fight for the future that Weaver Vale and the country deserves.