Dear Sir,
The Conservative candidate claims she was ‘predisposed’ to like Newton Aycliffe because her ‘partner grew up in a new town.’ Well, if that is the closest link she has to Newton Aycliffe that is pretty damn dire.
As a young woman who has lived in Aycliffe all her life, I fail to see how someone who has just finished university and didn’t know Newton Aycliffe existed weeks ago can represent me. As for her claim that she is ‘looking to rent a property here’ that’s simply not good enough. Shouldn’t you actually live in place before hoping to represent it, so you can understand and empathise with its residents? In my opinion, yes. But I wonder how keen she will be to stick around when she doesn’t win on June 8th, not very, I imagine.
Newton Aycliffe is an aspirational town, but I certainly didn’t need someone from Hull to tell me that. But what aspirations does she have for Newton Aycliffe? What aspirations does she have to help Newtonians and families like mine? My mam suffers from MS and is severely disabled, my dad who is in his late 60’s is her carer.
Both of them spent their entire adult lives working in a factory in Newton Aycliffe paying into the system, but now when they need help, this callous and uncaring Tory government has abandoned them. The Conservatives are destroying our NHS, meaning my Mam cannot get the care and treatment she needs. The Tory government has created a crisis in social care, meaning my dad doesn’t get the support he duly deserves.
My parents worked hard, they are the epitome of an aspirational family. They encouraged me to go to University, the first in my family to do so. But now when they need help from the state they have always paid into, they have been abandoned because the Conservatives don’t care.
But my parents aren’t alone, thousands of people in this town don’t have access to the treatment and social care they deserve because of ruthless Conservative cuts to our NHS. We are being left behind, because this Tory government doesn’t care about ordinary working people.
A Tory won’t look after Aycliffe, their candidate is clearly trying to move up the Tory career ladder at mine and your expense. I will be voting for Phil Wilson, who has a clear record of helping families like mine. A person who actually lives in the constituency, and not because it might advance his political career, but it is a place he has always called home.
PS. Whilst our tory candidate would ‘like’ to run the Great North Run, this is something I am doing this year, to
raise money for the MS Society to fund treatment the Conservatives deny MS sufferers like my Mam.
Although I imagine her plans to stay in the North East don’t extend as far as the Great North Run in September.
Hannah Siddle
