BRADFORD SOUTH: Candidates' statements

GOOD jobs, good local schools and an NHS with time to care are my priorities for Bradford South.

As a working wife and mother, I know and share the challenges that hard-working ordinary families face. 

I know that Britain only does well when all of us do well. We need good jobs, not poverty pay on zero-hours contracts. 

I campaigned for the national minimum wage in the 1990s and it’s now time for the Living Wage. 

I will set up a Bradford South business forum to help create the good jobs we need.

Education is so important. I was a mature student and went to college with help from my trade union. We must raise standards and invest in local schools that are accountable to local communities. 

We must also properly fund Sure Start, giving every child the best start.

I am pledged to defend our NHS, to deliver Labour’s plans to improve access to family doctors and work to create a national care service. 

I want to return our NHS to its core purpose – patient care.

I was delighted to be chosen by party members in Bradford South as Labour’s candidate.

I am determined to deliver my promises here in the place where I had my first family home, where my children were born and where I was a councillor. 

I will be a strong voice for Bradford South - a down-to-earth and hardworking MP, living in the constituency and accountable to constituents week-in week-out, all year round.

THE people of Bradford South deserve an MP who will stand up to represent them and act as a strong voice in the community.

Someone who will be a champion for businesses in Bradford, encouraging jobs and apprenticeships to the area, who will help local communities to improve their environment, making it safer and cleaner, who is accessible and can be easily reached. 

Someone who recognises the importance of a strong and robust economy to protect the young, vulnerable and elderly in our society. 

I know that is what you want because I have listened to the residents of Bradford South. 

That is why I have worked with schools and businesses to create closer links and open up job opportunities to our school-leavers, facilitated drop-in sessions for residents with our local police, held social action days to clean up the area and to help reduce crime in local communities, why I have been supporting businesses to enable them to grow and create more jobs. 

Only with the Conservatives will you get an EU Referendum in 2017, a country living within its means, with full employment, giving every child the best start in life, offering security in retirement, a protected NHS and where everyone who works hard can have the security of owning their own home.

Which is why I am asking you to vote Conservative and enable me to continue with my record of action and enable the Government to continue with our long-term economic plan.

I’M Andy Robinson, your average person who wants change. The reason I became interested in politics was social injustice. 

Firstly, I was made redundant and found myself out of work for almost a year. Secondly, my son has long suffered from Crohn's disease, research into a cure for which is desperately underfunded. For too long he was let down by our welfare system – his disability allowance assessments carried out by ATOS saw applicants as numbers in the context of business targets, rather than human beings unlucky with their lot in life. 

I therefore back fairness. The Green party will create jobs and a living wage of £10 an hour by 2020.

I back a healthy society and will campaign for the NHS 2015 reinstatement bill to prevent further privatisation.

I back investment in renewable energy which in turn will create more job opportunities and reduce energy usage and bills.

I back making both tax avoidance and evasion by multi-national companies socially unacceptable.
I back investment in education by fighting to scrap tuition fees, bringing back all schools to LEA and campaigning to reduce classroom sizes.

In Bradford South we have a lack of affordable housing. I will chase funding for Bradford Council to start building for our future families.

So while I feel strongly about environmental issues and understand their critical and indeed economic importance, it is social justice I am most passionate about.

UKIP believe in Britain. We do not need to have the cuts. The cuts were a Government choice, not a necessity. Our Government is sending every day £55 million to the undemocratic EU and £29 million in foreign aid, while people here are suffering from vicious cuts to services. 

Ukip would stop sending billions of pounds abroad and stop our cuts.

To protect our jobs and public services we need a sensible immigration system with a points system like Australia. 

Our open border to Europe is overburdening our NHS, schools and housing, increasing unemployment and driving down wages.

Ukip pledge to spend an extra £3 billion on our national health service and oppose its privatisation.

We believe the NHS should be free for every UK resident but not for every citizen of Europe. Ukip would put an extra £1 billion per year into elderly social care; our elderly deserve high-quality care and respect.
For Bradford South we will put the power back in your hands, by introducing binding local votes for important issues.

We will fight to keep services local and will bring funding to Bradford South for more youth projects and elderly services.

Your Ukip candidate Jason Smith will be a strong voice for Bradford South.

On May 7, you are voting for an MP to represent Bradford South, not a Prime Minister.

With one in three voters voting Ukip last year, it’s a clear two-horse race, only Ukip can defeat Labour here.

IN 2010 the country was nearly bankrupt, the banks had been allowed to run wild and unemploy-ment was rising. With no one party gaining a majority Liberal Democrats went into government providing the stability that was vital.

In government we curbed the worst excesses of the Conservatives, making sure that the essential job of balancing the books was done in a fair way. 

Even as the junior partner in the coalition we delivered on many of our manifesto pledges. We made sure additional money was given to schools in disadvantaged areas.

We gave an £800 tax cut to millions of people and have taken thousands in Bradford South out of tax completely.

We have delivered over 18,000 apprenticeships in Bradford and more young people are going to university, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The rise in the minimum wage is the largest since 2008. 

We ensured the biggest-ever pension increase and brought in the ‘triple lock’ to make sure future rises are as good as or better than inflation.

For the future we are committed to a further £400 income tax cut and bringing even more people out of tax. 

We will give the NHS the £8 billion that it has been independently assessed as needing, and we will finish the job of balancing the books so our children are not saddled with our debts.

Only with Liberal Democrats in government can we be sure of delivering a stronger economy and a fairer society.