Fair funding for Cornwall would be my number one priority if elected in St Ives

“If you are elected what will be your number one priority for your constituency and why?”

My number one priority as MP would be to get a fair deal for Cornwall’s funding, not only because it would be the right to do, but also the public are crying for decent public services.

As I see it, there are 3 major problems that need to be addressed by government and have been ignored by politicians for far too long. 1 this constituency has the lowest wages in all of Cornwall and some of the worst across the UK. 2 Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of the European Union and second poorest in the UK. 3 We are given a raw deal for government on funding and this makes the first 2 problems so much worse.

Here’s some examples, recently John Pollard said that Cornwall Council was short changed by £48 million a year by government. Our school child funding per head is £154 less than the national average. In the years 2006-2013 our NHS got £220 million less than the funds government even declared they needed. We need fair funding and I am proud to represent the only party which has addressing this issue as a manifesto commitment. This would be my priority.

West Cornwall Healthwatch hustings last week

Last wednesday I attended the West Cornwall Healthwatch hustings at the Methodist Chapel on Chapel Street in Penzance. It was quite a long debate as there were the 6 candidates and a very lively one. It's of no surprise that the NHS is a major issue in politics, it always has been indeed always should be. This has intensified over the last government with the continuation and acceleration of the privatisation introduced by Labour. 

As you can imagine the issue of privatisation came up time and time again. I was very happy for the round of applause when I explained that Mebyon Kernow's policy is to say not to privatisation of the NHS and other public services and the need to bring them back into public administration away from the undemocratic and unaccountable trusts and groups. I also spoke on the need for decentralising health care services and my view that more needs to be done at West Cornwall Hospital and that Cornwall deserves more than one general hospital. I was also proud to be the representing the only party calling for fair funding of Cornwall's NHS. For example Cornwall's NHS was underfunded by £220 million from 2006-2013. You can watch/ listen to the debates here:
and here: