SADDLEWORTH will once again go to the polls on July 4 as the nation votes for its Prime Minister.
Current incumbent Rishi Sunak called a general election against a backdrop of disquiet against his Conservative Party and many expect Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer to be 10, Downing Street’s next occupant.
Closer to home, the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency is expected to be keenly fought, with eight candidates standing.
But who are they? What will they do if they are voted in? Saddleworth Independent has the answers as all of them have provided statements.
Oldham East and Saddleworth
DEBBIE ABRAHAMS (LABOUR)
AFTER 14 years of Conservative and coalition Governments, our public services are crumbling, and families are struggling to make ends meet.
NHS waiting lists have risen to record levels, people sometimes wait weeks for a GP appointment and travel to Tameside or further for routine tests.
Neighbourhood policing is non-existent, anti-social behaviour goes unpunished and our roads are increasingly unsafe.
At the same time, average Oldham incomes are lower than Greater Manchester’s and England’s and taxes are at the highest level for 70 years.
Public sector funding allocations from central Government to Oldham and similar areas haven’t been fair.
On top of this, in 2022, the Conservatives crashed the economy, making mortgage and rents skyrocket, putting pension funds on the brink and making it even more fragile.
It’s no wonder when I talk to you on the doorstep or in my surgeries, you despair.
But I firmly believe there is hope!
I remember what it was like working in the NHS in 1998 and the change a Labour Government introduced then. We desperately need another to do this again.
I’ve served as your MP since 2011, supporting you and with my team, doing almost 60,000 cases, championing your priorities in Parliament.
I promise to continue working hard for you, fighting for fairness for all, restoring our public services – our NHS, schools, police and more – and working with businesses to create new, quality jobs for a sustainable future.
There is hope for a better future!
On July 5, you will wake up with either a Labour or Conservative Government. A vote for anyone other than Labour is a vote for five more years of Conservative chaos.
SAM AL-HAMDANI (LIBERAL DEMOCRATS)
BORN and bred in the constituency, I have been a local councillor for the last five years.
I have a track record of campaigning on vital issues like addressing tax avoidance and profit shifting to create a level playing field for small business.
Tackling domestic abuse and violence and protecting the environment, addressing the hideous level of sewage dumping in local rivers and moving to a low-carbon economy.
I have a wide range of experience in the public and private sector.
I have worked as a journalist, promoting green UK companies overseas and covering construction and business in the UK and abroad.
I qualified as a graphic designer – working for high-street, blue-chip brands, organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and local businesses and charities.
I later worked for the United Nations, then moved to the UK’s Fair Tax Foundation, helping to promote effective tax policies and challenge international tax avoidance.
Our area needs leaders ready to stand up and inspire people as to what its future can be.
We should be creating opportunities for a new generation of entrepreneurs – we are on the edge of Manchester, with brilliant transport links across the country. We need to take advantage of what we have.
We should be investing in environmental technology, such as an innovative world-leading mine water heating project, using the legacy of our past as the inspiration for a new future.
The UK economy should be driven by new green technology and we could be at the forefront of it.
Oldham, its towns and villages surrounding it have an amazing past. They can have an amazing future. We need to deliver it.
JACOB BARDEN (REFORM UK)
WHY DO I want to be your MP? Simply put, the people of Oldham are fed up.
They’re fed up with Labour and the Liberal Democrats running their once great town into the ground.
Poor planning, poor investment and poor leadership have ruined Oldham. People want change, and I intend to be that change.
My pledges to you as your Member of Parliament:
Get more police officers on the streets, making your streets safer.
Improve the financial situation for small to medium business owners by reducing the rent.
Celebrate VE and St George’s Day the way they ought to be celebrated.
Reduce council tax, putting more money in your pocket.
Improve infrastructure through better road maintenance.
Protect our heritage buildings.
Increase the tax threshold from £12,500 to £20,000, giving both young and old more disposable income.
Fast track new build houses on brown field sites and protect our green belt.
Leave the European Court of Human Rights and Introduce the British Bill of rights.
Scrap the wasteful and ineffective Rwanda deal and instead stop the boats and send them back to France.
NICK BUCKLEY (INDEPENDENT)
THE PEOPLE of Oldham and Saddleworth voted for me in twice the numbers than other areas when I stood for Mayor of Greater Manchester.
They stood by me, so now I stand by them.
I am not a politician, just a kid off a council estate who has spent decades solving social issues and reducing crime.
Isn’t this the type of MP we need? Someone with experience in getting things done and improving the lives of local people.
I will set up a crime partnership to ensure the police and council are doing what they should be doing – I have advised three Prime Ministers on crime reduction.
I will insist I am part of the council’s grooming gang report to ensure it gets to the truth – I have stopped many children from being sexually abused and won a national award for this work.
I will set up an early warning system to highlight when a new policy wishes to charge us for driving on the roads we have already paid for through taxation – the Clean Air Zone will reappear.
We live in a beautiful part of the world and must save the Green Belt for our children – we must end mass immigration to end the housing crisis and then we do not have to destroy our green and pleasant land.
Finally, the way to improve everyone’s lives is to fix Oldham Council – the level of incompetence and corruption is staggering.
I will hold them to account so you can see what is wrong, and then you can vote differently.
www.NickBuckley4Parliament.co.uk
PAUL ‘BOOTS’ ERROCK (INDEPENDENT)
ON NOVEMBER 12, 2019, I entered the ‘arena of politics,’ co-founding a group titled ‘Proud of Oldham and Saddleworth’ – fundamentally I am!
I’ve a deep and passionate love of Oldham and Saddleworth. What has taken place this past couple of decades has broken my heart.
Locally and nationally, I’ve voted for all three main political parties and feel let down by them.
Our primary objective was to remove Labour from overall control of our council.
We were asked, ‘Why bother? It’s impossible to displace Labour in Oldham, they’ve 45 Councillors.’
On May 2, after working our socks off for five years, we did it!
I’ve been approached to join every single mainstream party, including recently, Reform.
I’ve chosen instead to take the most difficult route to Parliament as I am fiercely Independent.
A back-bench MP cannot formulate policies within the ruling Government. To imply they can is nonsense.
But an Independent CAN vote freely on each piece of legislation – you can vote for policies you believe will serve the best interests of Oldham and Saddleworth.
I’ll be a voice for all issues causing concern in our borough. To national issues, among other things, I’ll be a voice to address illegal immigration, saving the NHS, properly equipping our armed forces and seeking to scrap student fees.
If I joined any main political party, they could stop me airing views. As an Independent, they can’t!
After the election is over, I’ll still be here. Those seeking to use Oldham East and Saddleworth to serve their political ambitions will return to where they came from.
If you want someone to stick up for Oldham East and Saddleworth, I will be that VOICE!
TOM FISH (CONSERVATIVE)
EVERY reason I am the person I am today can be found in Oldham or Saddleworth.
I grew up outside Delph, went to school in Oldham, went to the chippy in Shaw every week and, importantly, had my first pint of beer in a local pub.
My parents are both lawyers and they ingrained in me growing up that you must be honest, fight for what is right and make sure you can make the best case for the things you believe in.
Politicians have forgotten that.
That’s why I want to be the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth and make sure our voice is heard and will promise to fight for the improvement of the whole constituency, not just part of it.
People are fed up with politicians talking a good game but not getting anything done.
I like getting stuff done and want to be a proactive MP if elected and to make our community proud.
I’m going to challenge the appallingly run Oldham Council, push for tax cuts locally and at Westminster, empower the police to protect our community, protect our glorious green spaces and push for net migration numbers to be significantly lowered.
I know the national picture is tough, but we have a genuine chance for positive local change if I am elected.
A vote for any other candidate locally is essentially a vote for Labour and more of the same. I know I’m not alone in thinking we deserve so much better.
Don’t just hope for better, vote for me on July 4 and you’ll actually get it.
FESL REZA-KHAN (GREEN PARTY)
I WATCHED as the country I grew up in was vandalised piece by piece. I just want it fixed.
No-one stepped up, so here I am.
I have served in the Army, local government and banking, so I don’t like drama or excuses, preferring to just get on with it.
As a Green, I have big plans like replenishing the family silver, our utilities and social housing stock, that was sold off on the cheap.
I want green energy, solar panels, heat pumps and a minimum wage of £15 per hour to tackle the cost of living.
Without a Clippercard and low uni fees, where would I be? The next generation deserves the same and more.
In the papers every week, I read about violence and exploitation against women and girls. As a dad, for me this is a personal priority.
If you want to know more, for example, how to solve illegal immigration and the NHS, I would love to explain my solutions.
But where do we begin? I will start with the small things, like manners and plain English.
Our manifesto includes commitments to affordable housing and other benefits – ensuring new developments with local service investments, solar panels and heat pumps.
We will introduce universal basic income and free transport for students.
Regarding the NHS, we guarantee rapid GP and dentist’s access, we will boost staff pay and support mental health rights.
I want things like anti-social behaviour, littering and aggression, that spoil our hours and days, to be tackled.
If we start here, the big things will follow. It’s not difficult. I just want a chance to sort it out.
SHANAZ SADDIQUE (WORKERS PARTY OF BRITAIN)
I WORK in Oldham, my family, and friends are here. I am a proud mum and a grandmother and I have had many difficulties in my life.
I know what it is to wonder how I can make ends meet. Oldham needs a loud voice and I will bring that voice.
This election is about real change because #OldhamDeservesBetter, I will listen to the community.
Oldham East and Saddleworth has truly diverse communities, from the farmers in Saddleworth and the lovely villages to central Oldham, where working families struggle to put food on the table.
I will be your champion for our town, ending the spiralling neglect it suffers.
My community champions have been active listening to your needs, and I will act upon them.
Champion the local business community, to build a new partnership between workers and employers so all may benefit.
Champion farmers’ support as no farmers equals no food. No more house building on Green Belt land is a guarantee from me.
Campaign to bring high skilled jobs here, work with the colleges and schools, raising skills levels to facilitate our children’s career prospects here in Oldham.
Champion social needs like ending the chronic housing shortage caused by our bungling Labour council.
I will bring Government funding into the Town to provide youth clubs, social centres and community activity back.
By ending involvement in other people’s wars, the peace dividend will bring the wasted billions back to us to be spent on you not on killing others.
Not a pretty sight.
Also much as Saddleworth will try to bravely ignore the fact, the MP who is going to be elected, (most likely Abrahams unfortunately although the others are an almost equally depressing prospect,) will not just be the an MP for Saddleworth but for East Oldham as well and for many voters Saddleworth, “issues,” are going be of little real concern or interest.
Although with the Conservatives who were given a 80 seat majority are now a complete laughing stock, (even without their sell out out of Northern Ireland to the EU,) and with Labour still tainted by all the scandals, corruption and failures of the Blair Administration, Mid Staff, Child Exploitation, £14 billion going AWOL from the NHS and so on and so on and so on……………………………., the prospect for most of us has never looked bleaker or more depressing.
Personally I shall most likely be spoiling my ballot paper.