A ‘PROUD council estate kid’ who grew up with a single mum and became the first in his family to attend university, is confident of becoming the Labour MP for a largely rural seat to the north and west of York.
Bradford schoolteacher Ben Pickles, 29, launched his campaign at the weekend in the normally Tory stronghold of Wetherby, hoping to take the new constituency of Wetherby and Easingwold.
The seat is made from the Ainsty part of the old Selby and Ainsty and other neighbouring seats. It includes Wetherby, Easingwold, Boroughbridge, Tadcaster and surrounding villages.
Electoral Calculus estimates that on such boundaries the Conservative Party would have taken the seat with a majority exceeding 25,000, with two-thirds of the vote, in 2019. Based on current polling, the gap has dropped from 50 per cent to less than 10 per cent, which Ben, who has 'close' family links to Wetherby, believes he can overcome.
Ben was born and raised in Bradford and has stood for Labour in Shipley.
He graduated in politics and then trained to be a teacher, specialising in English, Citizenship and A-Level Law, He now works at Parkside School, Cullingworth.
He told the T&A's sister paper, the York Press: “Labour shares my vision about social justice.
“I’m a proud council estate kid, grew up with a single mum, and was the first in my family to go to university.
"I was a teenage parent myself and know full well how difficult it is to simply pay the bills at times.
“My two children shape my values and view of social justice - giving every child the opportunity to succeed is my primary goal.”
Ben has already begun campaigning and cites issues such as housing, town centre regeneration and infrastructure. Naturally, he supports Labour plans for an extra 6,500 teachers.
He also seeks to work with police and residents in tackling anti-social behaviour, cut NHS waiting times, bring buses back under public control and boost their services and ‘champion the high street.’
Ben won’t say which wing of the Labour Party he is from, saying it is not about labels.
“We can, of course, win, so many people want change,” he continued.
“Keir Mather (who won the Selby & Ainsty by-election for Labour last summer, taking the once ‘safe’ Conservative, previously held by Nigel Adams) has been a massive help. We have been in close contact about sharing resources, helping one another.”
Ben added: “I fully believe in Keir Starmer’s vision. He offers a PM-in-waiting with a sensible approach. Keir Starmer has changed the Labour Party. He will change the country.”
The other candidates to date are John Hall (Yorkshire Party), Anna Jacobs (Green), Michael Jordan (Reform UK), James Monaghan (Liberal Democrats) and Sir Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative), who since 2010 has been the MP for the nearby Elmet and Rothwell constituency, which was dissolved in the recent boundary changes.
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