The candidates running for the Witney constituency in the May 7 2015 General Election
Conservative candidate for Witney & current MP
“I will ensure West Oxfordshire has world-class infrastructure to compete globally. In Government, we are helping small business owners by lowering Corporation Tax, capping the rise of business rates and cutting tax with £2,000 off National Insurance bills, thanks to the Employment Allowance, so they can afford to take on staff and grow.
West Oxfordshire includes 400 square miles of the most beautiful landscape in England. I am committed to maintaining a living, working countryside and will help our farms by cutting red tape, encouraging public support of British food and proper labelling, supporting rural enterprise, dealing with diseases, like Bovine TB.
The NHS is to be valued, protected and improved. I keep in regular contact with healthcare experts and patients to continue to work for better community health services and ambulance response times so we have the best care when we need it most. I have backed new healthcare facilities and campaigned hard to keep NHS staff at Chipping Norton Hospital. In our wider area, there are more hospital doctors and nurses, and more operations and cancer scans have been carried out since 2010. I will continue to fight for the world-class health service that we all need and deserve.”
Liberal Democrat candidate for Witney
‘Andy Graham was born in Birmingham and now lives in the Cotswolds in Churchill. He was educated in a technical school before training and qualifying as a teacher.
Andy has worked with over 3 million children and young people over 26 years with the internationally acclaimed Snap Theatre Company which he set up with 50 pounds and a creative mind! He has employed well over 500 designers, actors, musicians and dancers and knows what is takes to run a business.
Having been a Mayor and Councillor for 16 years Andy understands local issues and passionately believes that the rural life in the Witney constituency needs preserving with sensible planning that has joined up thinking to ensure a sustainable future linking jobs, schooling and housing.
Andy believes the green and environmentally friendly achievements as well as future pledges of the Liberal Democrats are evidence of the Party’s commitment to make Britain a safer and healthier land for the future.
Andy takes pride in not being labelled a professional politician but passionately believes that engaging people in the issues that matter through public meetings, on the doorstep and then in Parliament can restore public confidence.
Andy will be a Member of Parliament visible and always respecting your vote by being there when you need him!’
Labour Party candidate for Witney
‘Duncan is a local councillor in Witney and the leader of the opposition on West Oxfordshire District Council. He has lived in the area for over 30 years, arriving as a physics student in Oxford University. He was a director of an NHS Trust for ten years, serving as Vice Chair. He is married with children who all go to local schools in Witney, and is a parent governor at the local secondary school. Key policies include:
• Tackling the A40 congestion
• Tackling the lack of affordable housing and improving the planning process
• Trying to improve quality and equality of education in the local schools
• Improving local healthcare facilities, resisting privatisation of the NHS’
Green Party candidate for Witney
‘Stuart Macdonald is a local candidate, having lived in Witney for over 20 years. He is married with four children, two of whom live in Witney. He works as a professor in a management school, trying to persuade students and colleagues that society requires more than cut-throat competition. He is standing in the election because he believes the country desperately needs radical change. Massive inequality deprives most people of choice. There is nowhere better to say this than in David Cameron’s own constituency, where the inequality is huge – and ignored.
Stuart said: “I believe that all our resources (not just our natural resources) are precious and that we must use them responsibly and for the common good. I will remind David Cameron that in his own constituency, one of the richest in the country, the ‘greenest government ever’ has meant collapsing infrastructure, flooding, and food banks.
“A blind adherence to a dogmatic monetarist system will result in depredation of resources and global ruin for many, but even greater wealth for the few – a state of global inequality that will engender global instability. It’s time to consider money for what it is, a tool to achieve such ends as equitable distribution and economic regeneration that pivots on renewable resources and sustainability. Money is not an end in itself.
The Green Party wants a more equitable society, one based on long term sustainable investments. We have had enough of the casino economy. We have had enough crude political propaganda. If voters are ever to take intelligent decisions, they must be informed decisions. We believe that voters vote Green because they are informed.”
Simon Strutt
UK Independence Party candidate for Witney
Simon Strutt is standing in Witney as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate. He previously stood in Buckingham in 2010, as a Cut The Deficit candidate.
