Integrity and trust
The Brexit Party has come into existence in reaction to the appalling behaviour from Parliamentarians on all sides, by bringing together ordinary but talented people from all walks of life with the drive and determination to restore democracy back to the UK and to restore faith back into politics which is now long gone. The Brexit Party candidates represent political views across the spectrum from left to right. This will ensure issues across the political spectrum are effectively represented in a balanced way for each constitueny as approprate and should encourage more rigourous debate with Parliament.
The Brexit Party’s approach is to make realistic promises, which is key to rebuilding integrity and trust, and not making promises it knows that cannot be fulfilled. We have had continuing erosion trust from the more traditional parties as they seem to continue to fail to deliver on their manifesto promises with every election manifesto.
Aside from restoring democracy, faith and trust in politics, the Brexit Party is heavily engaged in developing smart, deliverable policies and continues to make policy announcements as we now move closer to a General Election.
Policy: Contract with the People
We have announced a number of policies over recent months and have now published our Contract with the People setting out our credible plan of action for the next Parliament. Leaving the EU is the just the first step. The key is what we do once we leave. This Contract set out our Party’s ambitious but credible plan, not undeliverable promises, which we will strive to deliver.
The following policy positions represent a combination of policies already announced by the Brexit Party and the further positions I will represent if I am elected. The following highlights the policies I will represent and push for (more details below).
- A clean-break Brexit
- Protecting and improving our National Health Service (NHS)
- Tackling crime, restoring law and order and creating more opportunity
- Constitutional and political reform
- Supporting key infrastructure projects
- Supporting business
- Abolishing inheritance tax
- Tackling the housing shortage
- Supporting UK Defence and NATO
A clean-break Brexit
Brexit has to be properly executed. See my Brexit webpage. In the short-term, leaving on a clean-break basis will enable the UK to end unnecessary negotiations with the EU and stop additional tens of billions going to the EU. Howeverm Brexit is not simply about leaving the EU, but reshaping the country after leaving. For the longer term we will need to immediately focus on reviewing UK industrial and trade regulations, taxes and commence trade talks with countries outside the EU as well as the EU when political games stop being played.
Improved education and training opportunities
This would include:
- Improvements for young people educated in state schools, reflecting both my background, having done my GCSEs at Mayfield School, when it was the 2nd lowest performing school in my borough back in 1995, and my experience working with many students across London and Birmingham.
- Enhanced vocational training and education as well as academic eduction.
- Improved career opportunities and enhancing student motivation by directly putting employers across industries in touch with schools to provide guidance on the variety of opportunities that are potentially available. I worked on an education programme in Birmingham where this was really effective.
- Looking at better connecting our education and vocation needs with our changing global environment. For example, the transition to clean energy is going to require specific training to ensure we succeed in reducing carbon and harmful particulate emissions.
Protecting and improving our National Health Service (NHS)
This is a topic where all parties should work together to agree and achieve common goals that focus on enhancing standards of patient care, rather than using the NHS merely to score political points. Improving the NHS is something I am passionate about following the death of my Father after Christmas 2018. He spent a lot of time in hospitals, particularly King George’s and Queen’s, over the last few years with various serious health issues. Among his issues, he developed vascular dementia which was particularly tough for me and my Mum as his carers. I have also spoken in detail about the NHS with Doctors, nurses, carers and others. For example, see the views of one of my fellow constituents and supports, Barbara. She also kindly spoke to me on video.
Many issues need reviewing (some of which will take a while to fix) and include (but are certainly not limited to):
- reducing the stress on frontline doctors and nurses, exacerbated by Conservative-imposed long-working hours and budget cuts, to encourage more aspiration to work in the NHS and to address high staff turnover;
- tackling restrictions on procurement;
- ensuring the NHS remains publicly owned and where private initiatives have failed these must be brought back into public control.
- Your post code should not determine your standard of care or health.
- considering how we can make healthy living (exercise and diet) and mental illness a stronger part of the NHS in addition to curing and managing illnesses;
- Looking at hospital trust financing to see if debts can be transferred to the Treasury to free up more money for patient care. Having looked into this myself, the level of debt at Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals Trust is staggering; borrowing due within a year as at March 2019 stands at almost £77million. This excludes total borrowings, which become due longer-term after March 2020, standing at over £353million.
- We need to review hospital parking charges. Last year it was reported NHS staff paid £841,100 in parking charges.. At a minimum NHS staff should not be paying parking charges to get to and from work. The level of charges for families of patients should also be reviewed. I will take this up with Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust.
Tackling crime, restoring law and order and creating more opportunity
Like many parts of the country, we have seen a steady increase in crime in Ilford South as a result of austerity. We have problems with poverty as well which also contributes to higher crime. Many constituents have told me about crimes they or others they know have suffered from. For example, we have issues with kerb crawling in areas like Little Ilford. Neighbours of mine who are retired have been assaulted in Goodmayes Park, but the police could barely do more than issue a crime number.
Nationally, we need a more effective approach to crime with more stringent sentencing for more serious offences and more visible police (in part by reversing damaging cuts to our police). However, this is only one side of the coin.
We also need to create more opportunites for people, particularly as wealth inequality continues to increase. We need a culture of hand-ups on hand-outs. Many young people lack motivation and discipline in part because they have no real guidance to help them achieve their potential. Vulnerable women and girls are forced turn to prostitution because of their circumstances. Dealing with these social issues is not not a quick fix.
The police and local Councils are stretched and there is a lack of national Government strategy, including retraining opportunities in a fast changing economy and lifting people out of poverty. We need to work harder and smarter to address the high costs of living for ordinary people. This will require a range of well executed policies described on this page, such as ensuring we create the opportunities that Brexit can provide, a more focused education strategy, and putting in place a better strategy on housing.
Fighting harder to tackle environmental damage faster
This is the most important issue of our time and for future generations. For more detail see the Action to address environmental webpage. In summary, our focus would include:
- Pushing for ambitious reforestation targets to more effectively, quickly and cheaply reduce carbon emissions. The world must significantly increase tree coverage each year, including the UK.
- The UK will need to review EU-based environmental and trade standards and review whether they are appropriate for the UK environment. There are arguments for and against whether: EU trade measures (which do not sufficiently take into account local environmental issues) such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy; and environmental measures such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the EU Water Framework Directive has a detrimental impact on the UK environment including flood damage. Regardless (and I believe EU standards are woefully insufficient and out of date), we need to review and tailor all related legislation and work with UK industry to improve both the quality and standard of industrial production alongside reforestation targets.
- Investing in much better recycling facilities. Currently too much UK and developed world waste is not recycled but sent to Asian to be buried in landfil. Our waters are also heavily polluted with plastic and other waste which needs cleaning up as it has worryingly become part of the ecosystem.
- Encouraging clean energy investment.
Constitutional and political reform
This would include:
- Reform of the current electoral voting system to move the UK away from tribal politics. This includings moving away from a first-past-the-post voting system and to a one-vote proportional representation voting system so Parliament better reflects the political views of the UK and does away with the behaviour by some to vote tactically. It also includes review of postal avoiding to tackle voting fraud.
- Abolition of the House of Lords and its replacement with a smaller elected chamber to work alongside the House of Commons.
- Review of the judicial system to ensure Judges are not politicised.
One of the aspects of this General Election is the rise of tactical voting websites. I would urge voters to vote with their conscience, taking into account who the candidate is and what they represent by looking at all our websites, social media and contacting us directly. However, for transparency I have included links to various tactical voting leave websites here for supporters of leave and those who want to revive democracy in the UK.
Supporting key infrastructure projects
This includes both the completion of the Elizabeth line and the development of Crossrail 2 with honest timelines and budgets. Supporting key infrastructure nationwide, including regional railways, is a key policy platform for the Brexit Party. HS2 is considered a waste of money.
Supporting business
This includes reviewing and abolishing business rates and establishing free ports which are prohibited under EU rules.
Abolishing inheritance tax
Given the prices of houses today, most people who pass away cannot leave all their hard earned assets to the loved ones they leave behind due to being heavily taxed once you exceed the threshold. There is no good moral reason to maintain inheritance tax.
Helping the vulnerable
Protecting those in need is an important mark for civil society.
- The Universal Credit system has not worked efficiently for those in need and so needs revisiting. We also need to review the impact on women who have been short changed by the recent rises in the state pension age.
- Homeless is a rising problem and reflects the more extreme result of wealth inequality. Part of this will need to be addressed by more social/council housing and creating more opportunity.
We need to move to a culture of hand-ups not merely hand-outs to make self-dependence the goal. Homeless people and others in need are generally trapped in a loop and exploited. Councils are struggling to address these issues (given they have suffered serious cuts from central Government, the impact of which needs to be reviewed). Aside from basic accommodation we need to work harder to create opportunities, including retraining and perhaps starting a national scheme where employers are encouraged to employ those in need.
Specialist assistance has be looked at to tackle drug and alcohol addiction. We need to work more closely with charities to help push this agenda forward.
These issues are clearly difficult to tackle but we cannot pretend they do not exist or pretend leaving the EU is going to impact us badly. We need competent politicians to start to tackle and resolve the issues, but maintaining the status quo is not sustainable.
Tackling the housing shortage
We ought to encourage small and medium sized developers to assist with the needed increase in housing supply. Action we will push for include:
- Simplify planning consents for brownfield sites.
- Change the funding model to make it easier for Councils to borrow for central Government to build more Council homes.
- Accelerate infrastructure grants funding to kicks start schemes of marginal viability.
- Introduce more flexibility on the size and types of units and on the number of affordable homes within a development scheme.
More generally local Councils and central Government should be working more effectively together. The current apprroach remains too fragmented way.
Maintaining protections for workers’ rights
It is difficult to see how changing workers’ protection laws would be a priority for the next Government, given so many other key priorities need to be addressed in a post-Brexit UK. In any case, see my page on workers’ rights for more information.
Supporting UK Defence and NATO
The Brexit Party is committed to supporting NATO and UK Defence. Peace and military cooperation must be global. A European Defence Union is counterproductive; we do not need a regional/superpower approach. The Brexit party pledges to:
- Meet our NATO commitment to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence. Of this, 20% will go on equipment. Currently we spend 1.8% of GDP on NATO operational expenses.
- Stop the cuts to our military and give the armed forces an extra £6.5 billion over three years.
- Renew Trident and maintain an effective nuclear deterrent.
- Keep both aircraft carriers and give the RAF the fighting and support aircraft they need.
- Refit the army for 2020 for 1990, with a fully deployable division.
- Create a new Veterans Department to ensure our veterans are properly looked after.
- The UK must leave the European Defense Union and not participate in any EU Army.
For more details, see our launch event that took place on 6 December 2019.