Voters in the new Penrith and Solway Constituency will head to the polls on Thursday to vote for one of eight candidates standing to be the areas next MP.
The full Eight Candidates Penrith and Solway Constituency along with a short statement provided on each are:
Julia Aglionby - Liberal Democrats candidate
Let’s enable our fantastic communities in Cumbria thrive. Penrith and Solway needs a rural champion whose priority is your family, our communities and local businesses.
I am standing for change. And a fair deal our communities, small businesses and farms
I will work to fix social care, fund our schools and stop the dumping of sewage.
I’ve cycled 300 miles across the constituency during this campaign. I’ve listened to your concerns. I will be Cumbria’s voice where it counts. In Westminster.
Markus Campbell-Savours - Labour Party candidate
said he was standing because he wanted to see a better Cumbria and added: "This is where I am from and these are the communities I have grown up around and I just know they could be so much better under a Labour government.”
He said the response on the doorstep has so far been positive and added: “It has been fantastic, it’s an odd one this, I don’t think I’ve had an election where the response on the doorstep has been this positive.
"I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I think it’s genuinely because people don’t know what they are doing with that vote and they are falling away from their tribal ways.”
Susan Denham-Smith - Green Party candidate
My main priorities if elected will all be underpinned by the need to ensure we transition swiftly and fairly to a low carbon economy and create a fairer healthier community.
This will include: Delivering affordable and social housing in the places where they are most required, and ensuring that older houses are insulated and transitioned to green energy use.
Supporting a fair and just transition to sustainable farming, which will include increasing the support to farmers in the move to nature-friendly farming, creating greater food security by creating fresh food networks by developing domestic food production through community food co-operatives and regenerative growing hubs.
Growing jobs in the green energy sector so the move away from fossil fuel production or use is balanced with the growth and skills development in green jobs.
Support to finding solutions to improve public transport that work for both rural and urban communities and ensuring that budgets for public transport are equal across the whole country. An Education that ensures every young person reaches their potential by re-emphasising the joy of play in early childhood and exploring the world around them. Ensuring access to GPs and Dentists and introducing free personal care for the elderly.
Roy Ivinson - independent candidate
A farmer in Silloth, He cites his core political motivation as a desire to stop global warming and prevent local sea level rise. Roy was previously involved in the Young Farmers Club Association.
Mark Jenkinson - Conservative and Unionist Party candidate
I have lived and worked the length and breadth of the constituency. I’m raising my own family here - I have a vested interest in us succeeding. And I have a proven track record of delivery.
We know here in Cumberland & Westmorland and Furness, our Labour and Lib Dem councils have started discussions about banning cars from our town and city centres.
We are determined to turn this situation around. Since 2010, the Conservative Government has consistently been on the side of drivers. We have prioritised freezes in Fuel Duty and recently published our ‘Plan for Drivers’ including reforms to make better use of bus lanes, introduce penalties for overrunning street works and implement a consistent approach to the enforcement of entering yellow box junctions.
Following the recent consultation, we will allow motorcycles in all bus lanes and reform motorcycle licensing. We will roll out the National Parking Platform this year to simplify paying for parking. Reflecting feedback from older and disabled people, we will also give councils the power to ban pavement parking, provided they engage with businesses and residents to ensure they are not adversely affected.
We remain steadfastly committed to road safety and, to that end, will maintain our pledge to build no new smart motorways and invest in improving the safety of existing ones.
Chris Johnston - independent candidate
Although we are a geographically divided constituency, we aren't divided as people.
We all want the next generation to have access to good education and affordable housing, fair pay for honest work, a society that looks after its most vulnerable & and puts more in than it takes out, clean water, affordable food and energy, and we can build that country.
I want to restore trust in politics and political systems by expanding the recall petition and give the constituents the power to cause a by election to remove those that don't represent us.
By lending me your vote we can have the best of all worlds. I can vote for the good ideas that come from the government without dismissing good ideas from other parties.
A new democracy is possible. As this is a newly created seat we have this opportunity to write our future. Not as a safe party seat, nor a interparty marginal, but as a collaboration of voices.
A constituency that transcends the party politics of Westminster. We can make democracy a constant system of improvement and refinement, rather than something we only do once every 5 years.
Shaun Long - Social Democratic Party candidate
My priorities for Penrith and Solway are:
Guaranteeing a future for our livestock farmers, with fair pricing and procurement policies tailored to support local sourcing of food where possible
Support for family life, with a fully shareable tax allowance for couples with dependent children
Preferential access to new social housing for British married couples and veterans
Meaningful vocational training for young people leading to well-paid and secure employment, rather than the default route to university to accrue debt and study dead-end degrees; there will be incentives to train as doctors, nurses and clinicians, thereby expanding our own professional workforce rather than importing labour
Ensuring that householders maintain their right to heat their homes as they wish, including by oil, LPG and solid fuels for off-grid properties
Ensuring an adequate supply of sympathetically-built council housing to cater for local demand and make housing affordable.
Matthew Moody - Reform UK candidate
Matthew is standing because he’s had enough of the complete disregard for the ordinary man and woman over the last few decades and believe enough is enough.
Penrith and Solway is a rural constituency with a few small towns all of whom are affected by lack of investment and understanding by the Westminster bubble.
With farmers no longer receiving payments for farming the land, lack of good NHS care, a complete breakdown of public transport and most road filled with pot holes, together with unemployment on the rise, lack of new houses and lack of opportunities for our youth, it is clear that change is needed.
Statements for Candidates supplied via the Democracy Club
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