Following Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer’s visit to Crawley to launch Labour’s Manifesto for the South East, Leader of Crawley Council and Labour’s Candidate for Crawley, Peter Lamb has welcomed Labour’s focus on individual regions across the UK and on the plan for our region specifically.

Speaking about the South East Manifesto, Peter said: “This region by region focus is exactly what Britain needs to rebuild after years of Conservative austerity.

“The poor levels of growth, low pay, and in-work poverty here in the South East are simply unacceptable. When work is no longer a certain route out of poverty and public services are at breaking point it is clearly time for real change.

“This manifesto sets out Labour’s priorities for the South East. They will kick start a Green Industrial Revolution to tackle the climate crisis while creating 110,000 good jobs for local people.

“Only Labour will rebuild our public services so that once again they are the best and most extensive in the world.

“Like Labour’s national manifesto these plans are all costed. They will be paid for by creating a fairer taxation system in which those with the broadest shoulders pay a little more and everyone pays what they owe. We need a South East for the many, not the few. This is the plan to make that happen.”

During the launch, Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer said: “The South East has been held back by Tory and Lib Dem cuts for ten years.

“Since 2010, the South East has grown 40 per cent slower than London, and weekly wages are now £120 less than in the capital.

“Lib Dem and Tory cuts are why so many of us, or the people we love, have had to wait weeks in pain and worry for cancer treatment. They are why every Christmas, more and more people are sleeping on the pavements in the cold.

“They are why we are still not combatting the climate emergency. They’re even part of why our trains are crowded and late.

“This has to end. The South East, and the whole country, needs real change.”

Labour’s manifesto for the South East can be found here