My speech after winning New Ferry & Bromborough Ward
I am really delighted to be elected as Labour/Co-op Councillor for Bromborough.
Thank you to everyone who made this fantastic result possible. To:
The returning officer and their team of workers for democracy
Labour supporters, more than a hundred, who delivered leaflets and spoke with thousands of residents
To generations of our left wing parents and grandparents who built and defended our welfare state, our NHS and who raised children to question authority
To Oh, Jeremy Corbyn who provides the leadership and hope we need for our next Labour government
Most of all, I'd like to thank the 1,253 residents of Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry who came out and voted for me and for Labour.
I've listened and talked with thousands of people in this ward. Almost everyone is saying how important New Ferry is. New Ferry was devastated by a huge explosion, in March last year. At that time, I lived in Derry~Londonderry in Northern Ireland. In both places, I see communities that are doubly traumatised. Firstly by explosions and violence, and secondly by the ongoing trauma of government indifference, inaction and injustice - though the causes are different. The Conservative government found £7.5m for Salisbury after events there, and gives tax breaks to the richest, but public funding for local services we all rely on has been cruelly cut to the bone.
Wirral Council will be bidding for £1/2 million from the Town Centre fund, which will be a good start, a new start for New Ferry. People in our area, in Eastham and across the Wirral, we need affordable homes, built on brownfield sites that are accessible and community-led – not driven for profit.
Our new communities are built by including everyone as equals, young and old. We are rich in our diversity. My Jewish great-grandparents were refugees from racism in eastern Europe. We who live in England now, we all have family who live or work abroad.
So we are not fooled by attacks from the establishment on migrants, on the vulnerable people and on Labour. We are not bamboozled. We are not amused.
We are LABOUR. We are FOR THE MANY, not the few!
23 August 2018