Opinion: Vote… and make change happen

This year, Peterborough will hold its last local elections until May 2026. There is almost certainly a General Election taking place this year – but when? Many think October is favourite although the odds on a May election are shortening. The stark reality is whenever it takes place the Tories will lose, possibly heavily given the sheer number of scandals, poor decisions, and Prime Ministers the country has endured since they took office in December 2019.

No one could have foreseen the extent of the Covid pandemic at the start of 2020 but there is increasingly clear evidence that the UK could, and should, have locked down earlier than it did in March 2020. Parties at Downing St, leading to the downfall of Boris Johnson as PM, whilst Peterborough found itself in a Tier 4 lockdown due to rates of infection being among the highest in the country in December 2020, didn’t help anyone locally. Why were infection rates so high here? Because the city is dependent on low paid, low skilled, often migrant, labour unable to work from home so many had to go to work without adequate precautions in place especially in the care sector. Tory peer, Michelle Mone, has only just, three years on, admitted making £63M in profit from being given a contract selling PPE, most of it useless, by friends in the government. They now face allegations of bribery and fraud whilst our care and health workers never got to wear any of the products they sold. It is a scandal of our age, yet the enquiry has three more years to run so how many more similar events will become known in that time?

As 2020 dawned, did we “Get Brexit Done” with an “Oven Ready’ deal as promised by Boris? No; far from it. Only last year we had the latest version, the Windsor Accord, trying to right the wrongs of this Tory government but still no progress. What a mess. Each New Year brings hope and expectation that we have turned a corner, started a new page, a new chapter and good times lie ahead.

Sadly, 2023 started with sky high interest rates, inflation over 10% and utility bills so high many people I visited in my ward turned their heating off in the depth of winter. Yet, we are the second fastest growing city in the sixth richest economy in the world.

What 2023 revealed is the city and the country have cried out for change. Proud Peterborough achieved a measure of that by removing the failed Tory administration locally. There is an air of optimism in the Town Hall. A spirit of cooperation pervades as Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens support the newly independent Peterborough First to rectify the problems of the past. Let us continue in 2024 giving resounding support at the local elections in May, voting for those candidates who have worked for change, not simply telling us all is well when, quite clearly, it wasn’t.

Now to the General Election providing the best opportunity to put this failing government out of office and look forward to a brighter future as Labour looks to reunite the country around an agenda of economic growth and social justice.

In the meantime, I wish you a happy, prosperous, and socially just new year. It is time for change. Please vote, locally and nationally, to make it happen.