AT THE final hustings at Bromsgrove Methodist Centre, Bromsgrove’s Parliamentary candidates were asked to give statements, telling those gathered why they should vote for them.
Liberal Democrat Bart Ricketts said if elected, he would engage more people in politics and local issues and work towards more job creation and affordable housing.
He told residents not to be too harsh on the Liberal Democrats and added he hoped his party would get to play its part in another coalition.
UKIP’s Stuart Cross said, on a personal level, he was a big believer in MPs representing and prioritising their town and outlying villages. He added UKIP had received a lot of bad press from some parts of the media and urged people to read the party’s manifesto. Then, he said, if they agreed with it, they should give him their vote, if not, then to vote for what they believed in.
Labour candidate Tom Ebbutt said he owed Bromsgrove for giving him so much- he had grown up and been educated in the town. He added he wanted everyone to achieve their full potential in life and that was why he currently worked for an education charity.
He added Bromsgrove itself had so much potential and Bromsgrove Labour had a positive vision for that. He wanted to bring people flooding back to the High Street – people who wanted to be a part of the town. He said Labour was the positive choice for this election.
The Greens’ Spoz said: “If Labour’s the positive choice, we’re the really positive choice.” He spoke of how he wanted to put Bromsgrove back on the map so the town was known for being a passionate and caring community. He called on people to make Bromsgrove the town that led a Green revolution – with a small ‘r’.
And Conservative Sajid Javid said the last five years had been an honour and it would be a privilege to be given another term. He said since being elected, he had dealt with 13,000 enquiries from constituents and, although he had not always been able to help, he had tried his best. He said he prided himself on being a champion for local causes, adding in the next five years, he wanted to help address the challenges faced by the NHS, campaign for fairer funding for schools and cut unemployment further. He pointed out Bromsgrove’s unemployment rate – at 1.1 per cent – was one of the lowest in the country.
He told those gathered if they thought the country had moved forward in the last five years and was better off than in 2010, they should vote Conservative.
