BRADFORD EAST: Candidates' statements

I AM a Conservative who believes in social, political and economic cohesion. I promote equality and oppose discrimination based on grounds of race, gender, age, religion, disability or background. 

I am therefore proud of my party which has reduced poverty and inequality by creating 1.9m jobs, cutting taxes for 26 million with three million people now totally out of tax burden. 

More than 1,000 jobs have been created on a daily basis, 400 more disabled people found work every day last year, more jobs have been created in Yorkshire than in France.

Contrast this with what we had; a record deficit and in 2007/2008 and 2009/2010 inequality was highest since records began with 2.6 million children living in poverty. 

On education, we have insisted that universities broaden access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Record levels of students are now entering univer-sities proving that we have lifted barriers to good education for all. 

On the national debt situation, we have cut it by 50 per cent as a share of the economy with 20 per cent of the richest contributing more than the other 80 per cent. 

More than 32,000 tenants in Bradford can buy their homes under the Right to Buy Scheme. 

Locally, if elected I will fight for more school places, better roads infrastructure, protection of green belts, our share of development funds, reduction in crime and for jobs and better business environment. 
Elect me to build a better Bradford East. 

BORN and bred in Bradford, after attending local state schools I was the first person from my family to attend university, going on to qualify as a barrister.

I have always lived in Bradford and live here with my wife and two children. 

I have been a district councillor for ten years and have been Deputy Leader of the Council for the past four years.

My priorities are:

• Be available and be a strong voice for all Bradford East’s people regardless of background.
• Save our NHS.
• Mend our education system and school places crisis, London Challenge showed what can be done, we need that level of investment here in Bradford.
• Work to end the spiral of deprivation that blights our city. Poor educational attainment – lack of skills – lack of aspiration – paucity of ambition – low wages – weak local economy – lack of inward investment. All of which continues to drag us all down. We must not fail our young people again. In ten years’ time we need to be looking back at a decade of achievement not talking about failure.

I am proud to be the Labour candidate for Bradford East. I have pledged to be the voice of the people – not the establish-ment, and I look forward to a Labour Government which will build a country where the next generation can do better than the last.

DR JAMES Lewthwaite was educated as a classicist and archaeologist. He lectured at Bradford, Sheffield and Lancaster Universities. He now works in security.

James’s five priorities, would be:

1. To campaign for an end to all foreign immigration without any exceptions. He believes that immigration is encroaching on our countryside; taking the jobs of our people; overloading our resources but, most of all, immi-gration, especially from outside Europe, is destroying our identity. In particular he would resist the Islamification of our law, our cities and even our diet.

2. Withdrawal from the European Union. Whilst he is utterly opposed to xenophobic opposition to anything European, he says that the EU is costing us millions of pounds that could be spent on our own people, subjecting us to laws over which we have little control; and prevented us from controlling our own borders.

3. He would continue to demand that those guilty of the horrific hate-crimes of grooming and sex-ual abuse of our children should have to face British justice. 

4. He would oppose the ideology and practice of globalism, which threatens our industries, jobs and standard of living. It also robs the Third World of its finest talent, having a lethal effect on the well-being of its people.

5. He would press for national money to be directed towards repairing the economic, social and educational infrastructure of Bradford, the lack of which condemns Bradford to have to be a low-skill, low-wage and low tax-base area.

I LIVED in Bradford for 23 years, previously living in Johannesburg, South Africa. I believe in true community politicians, who work with people across the city.

Using a ‘bottom-up approach’ to community problems will have greater, longer lasting effect than the ‘cure-all’ policy dreamt up in Westminster by our current crop of politicians.

I have a master’s degree in international politics and security studies from the University of Bradford and am currently working on my PhD focusing on disengaged and disenfranchised communities. During my research work, I realised I could offer the community more than what was offered by the same old faces.

I worked tirelessly to bring communities together, including specialist work for the Home Office and European Commission aimed at countering the risk of radical-isation of the younger generation and getting them engaged in the world around them.

I am extremely proud to be selected as the candidate for Bradford East, our election team have already met and we have a Ukip council candidate in every ward in Bradford East working to improve local communities, and secure a Ukip victory on May 7.

Our local communities are being wedged apart by the effects of uncontrolled EU immigration which is having a negative effect on the resources that the Council and Government are able to provide to residents.

Only Ukip will help control immigration, through a points-based system, improve trade links with the Commonwealth and ensure the Government and the Council can plan effectively for the future.

I’M DAVE Stevens. Although I’ve always been involved with Green issues I only recently joined the Green Party. 

I joined because I was angry with the coalition government’s economic policies; which have shored up the banking sector in London, but have done nothing for ordinary people, nothing for small businesses and nothing for Bradford.

Equally I was angry that Labour were signing up to the same plans, cuts/pay freezes for you and me, yet there is money for nuclear weapons and HS2. 

I find it hard to believe that the Government can just create £375bn out of thin air through quantitative easing, give that to the banks, then expect us all to pay for it by closing our swimming pools, closing our libraries, via the bedroom tax, tuition fees etc. 

What we should, and what we could, be doing is creating a low-carbon, knowledge-based economy. 
We can’t ignore climate change. It isn’t going to go away! 

We need to create a fairer society, we can’t go on with a situation where the 85 richest people in the world have as much money as the 3,500,000,000 poorest. 

If elected I would be proud to represent Bradford, and proud to stand up for ordinary people against the multi-nationals, the newspaper barons and the tax-dodging elite who tell us that we can’t afford to fund the NHS, can’t afford free education and can’t afford a living wage. 

They’re wrong (and they know it).

IN 2010, I promised I would work my socks off for local people and ask people to judge me on my record. 

Our campaign to reduce the cost of car insurance helped to change the law and reduce costs. The ‘Save the Cheque’ campaign means we can still use cheques and our campaign to get anti-social bikes off the road led to legislation to provide for a compulsory registration scheme at the point of sale. 

Our ‘Bradford Cares’ Campaign was nationally recognised for making sure that voices of people from Bradford East were at the centre of legislation about care for the most vulnerable. 

The Liberal Democrats in Government have kept inflation and interest rates low, reduced unemployment by 25 per cent since 2010, invested in Bradford’s economy by securing £17m funding to kick start Westfield and £1.3m to help save the Odeon.

We have secured record pension increases and taken thousands of low paid workers out of income tax altogether. Almost two hundred thousand people in Bradford have received an £825 tax cut. 

Twenty-three thousand children now get a hot school meal; there is an additional £87 million of extra cash going into Bradford’s schools to help the most disadvantaged.

In Bradford East there are fewer people out of work, more people taking up apprenticeships and more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university. 

I hope people will support me on May 7. There is a lot more to do and I’m certainly keen to do it.