Asking for your

Voters across Canterbury and Whitstable will want to represent them in government. The race, both locally and nationally, but four

Rosie Duffield Labour

Simply put, I love Canterbury. I’ve raised my two children here and over the 22 years that I’ve lived here our family have invested in all aspects of community life. I will always put the interests of this constituency first – over and above party politics in every case.

I stood for Parliament in 2017 because I saw the damage Tory cuts had had on our community- on the school where I worked and the hospital where my children were born. Serving as your MP in parliament has been a great privilege, and I would not want to be an MP anywhere other than my home. Whoever forms the next government, it matters to me that local people have a properly funded hospital in Canterbury and that waiting times for GPS and cancer care are cut. Universal Credit has pushed many of the most vulnerable in society into abject poverty. In-work poverty is rising and food banks are a fact of life for hundreds of thousands across Britain.

It matters to me that our children are taught in schools where teachers are not having to reach into their own pockets for classroom supplies. It matters to me that our communities feel safe, because there are more police on the streets.

And, it matters to me that our local economy thrives, and that people have the opportunity to get on.

The impacts of Brexit would be felt particularly keenly here in Kent. I do not want to see my home turned into a car park and I will continue to lead in the campaign for the UK to remain in the EU.

With your support, I will continue to stand up for working people, for our NHS, our schools and our police. I will continue to be a strong, independent minded Member of Parliament who will always put Canterbury, Whitstable and the villages first.

Anna Firth Conservatives

We face a simple but critical choice today.

Do we want to wake up tomorrow and finally be able to move on? Or do we want months more uncertainty and delay, together with a ruinously high tax and spend agenda led by a Jeremy Corbyn government propped up by the Scottish National Party? Only the Conservative Party offers a clear way forward and the opportunity to start rebuilding the country together. With so much at stake, I am honoured to be your Conservative candidate.

I do not come from a privileged background. My grandmother was a dinner lady. But this country gave me the chance to flourish and I want the same opportunities for all our young people.

I have lived in Kent with my husband, Edward, three children and two dogs for 15 years and now live in Ickham. Throughout my life I have worked to make things better for others - as a healthcare barrister, as a school governor, as a trustee of MIND and as a district councillor. For years I have campaigned for better housing, better mental health, better sporting and educational opportunities for all. My priority is a new hospital for Canterbury and I am the only candidate that has already secured a clear commitment from the Health Secretary for significant investment in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.

Voting for me today is a vote to get Brexit done so that we can move on and make positive changes in our area, like tackling the dreadful congestion in Canterbury city centre, getting a new hospital in Canterbury, more police on our streets, better social care, tackling homelessness and improving our local schools. I am hugely optimistic and excited by the opportunities that lie ahead for both Canterbury, Whitstable and the villages beyond Brexit, and it would be a huge honour to be your Member of Parliament.

Claire Malcomson Liberal Democrats

A Labour vote is NOT a Remain vote. No matter what candidates say, you will get Jeremy Corbyn and who knows what will happen if he becomes Prime Minister? He is still sitting on the fence.

Many Remain Conservative voters would never vote Labour. I offer them a real alternative. I am dedicated to staying within the EU. I have four children who have never known anything else and I strongly believe the best future for them, Canterbury and the UK is to Remain.

Climate Change and the poverty I see in our country made me become a politician five years ago. At present I am the Environment Cabinet Member for Mole Valley. If I became your MP I would move into your constituency. My priorities have to be: saving our NHS, social and mental health care, including bringing the Kent and Canterbury Hospital back to its full strength; cleaning up the planet, for our children’s future; reversing cuts to police and other vital services; and I find it shocking there are so many homeless throughout this constituency.

The Liberal Democrats have clear strategies to deal with these. Be it 1p in every £1 on income tax, ring-fenced for the NHS, social care and mental health care, changing universal credit, building social housing or our detailed climate emergency schedule.

We are NOT offering fairytales, we are offering real-life solutions.

If you want to Remain in Europe, vote Lib Dem. If you want to stop this Brexit crisis, vote Lib Dem. If you want to mitigate climate change, vote Lib Dem. If you want to improve your local NHS, social care and mental health care, vote Lib Dem.

If you want the hardest working MP you’ve ever had, vote Lib Dem. If you want me, Claire Malcomson, please, vote Lib Dem.

Michael Gould Independent

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Before deciding in what order to save our Mother Earth, the National Health Service, the Welfare State and European Unity, we should consider the integrity of language.

If not, “we’re on a road to nowhere!” Canterbury has seen an enormous expansion of higher education and a vast increase in homelessness.

Inordinate tuition fees burden both graduate and tax-payer, while beggars line the streets. If student numbers were cut drastically, surplus student houses in the rented sector could be requisitioned for those on housing lists, and surplus teaching accommodation turned into school classrooms, hostels or geriatric wards.

Art for art’s sake, money for God’s sake, but why so many courses in media studies and politics?

“Another Rule of battle, that Alice had not noticed, seemed to be that they always fell on their heads, and the battle ended with their both falling off in this way, side by side: when they got up again, they shook hands, and then the Red Knight mounted and galloped off. “It was a glorious victory, wasn’t it?” said the White Knight, as he came up panting.

“I don’t know,” Alice said doubtfully.

“I don’t want to be anybody’s prisoner. I want to be a Queen.”

“So you will, when you’ve crossed the next brook,” said the White Knight. “I’ll see you safe to the end of the wood - and then I must go back, you know. That’s the end of my move.”

Follow the election results at www.kentishgazette.co.uk