A Team That Will Work For You – Labour’s local candidates

Labour has chosen its team of candidates to contest the local elections in Brighton and Hove on May 7^th.

I’m proud to be leading such a strong team into the local elections, a team of local residents who will bring knowledge of their neighbourhoods and a wide range of skills and experience to the city council. We have people in our team with proven records in delivering major projects, employment and skills, the NHS, education, voluntary sector organisations and more who will run our city competently if elected on May 7th.

With the General Election on the same day, a vote for your local Labour council candidates will count in each and every one of the city’s 21 wards. Labour is best placed in the vast majority of them to defeat Green and Conservative councillors. We have won the last four elections held in the city, and only Labour can get rid of the Greens.

A list of Labour candidates is here: www.brightonhovelabour.com/our_people

Our candidates reflect our city:

• Half of Labour’s candidates are women
• A quarter are experienced councillors, three-quarters are new to politics
• 10% of Labour’s candidates are drawn from the city’s LGBT community
• There are several candidates in their 20s, and representation from the city’s BAME community.
• Over two thirds of the current Labour councillors are seeking re-election.

Labour launched its local manifesto, “A City That Works For You” last week, pledging to deliver:

• Improved street cleaning, refuse and recycling and an end to Green traffic schemes
• Secure and well paid jobs, more apprenticeships and an end to youth unemployment
• Work to tackle poverty and inequality across the city
• 500 new council homes and measures to help tenants in the private rented sector
• A new secondary school and excellent results for all pupils

Read the full manifesto here:  www.brightonhovelabour.com/a_council_that_works_for_you

Labour is best placed to win, having won the four most recent elections in Brighton and Hove, and leads in the polls:

• May 2012: Police and Crime Commissioner, Labour win with 61% of the vote in the city.
• October 2012: East Brighton by-election, Labour win with 56% of the vote.
• July 2013: Hanover and Elm Grove by-election, Labour win with 40% of the vote, overturning a 1000 vote Green majority.
•  October 2013: citywide opinion poll by ComRes for the BBC puts Labour on 38%, Tories on 25%, Greens on 21%.
• May 2014: European elections, Labour win by 20,000 votes to 18,000 for the Green Party, 15,000 for Tories and 14,000 for UKIP.

Labour was in first or second place in 18 of the 21 wards at the last local elections in 2011, and had near equal support to the Green Party winning 32% of the vote, just 1% less that the Greens and 3% more than the Conservatives.

Vote Labour wherever you are in Brighton, Hove and Portslade on May 7th, for a team that will deliver for you, your family and your neighbourhood, a team that will work for you.