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We can make sure that every child, worker, and pensioner in Loughborough, Shepshed, and the villages does more than just survive. We can build a country in which they thrive.
As an Economist, trade union rep, and a teacher, I’ve dedicated my life to building that country.
When wages have fallen by £2,800 since 2010, when our energy bills are rising faster than any other nation, when our schools are crumbling, when people are dying waiting for ambulances, and when young people can’t afford to start families, it is clear we need change.
We need change because of decisions made in the Treasury. I would know, I used to work there.
I don’t just talk about change. I’ve spent my entire adult life fighting for and achieving it.
As an Economist, I spent two years working to end poverty inside the Somaliland government, one of the poorest and most fragile nations on earth. A nation where climate change was already leading to devastating droughts, starvation and death. I co-wrote their National Development Plan and budgets to help put them on the path to prosperity.
As a teacher, I taught disadvantaged children to help them get into university. That doubled the chances of those kids getting into good universities.
As a trade union rep, I’ve fought and won for my members. When my employer threatened my low-paid teaching colleagues with a 33% pay cut during the pandemic, I organised my members and put a stop to it.
I know that things are hard right now. The past decade has seen our country become poorer, sicker, and less safe.
But despite all that, I am still hopeful. Hopeful of the better tomorrow that we can build. I am standing to be your MP, in the constituency I live and call my home, because of that hope.
I’m currently the Head of Economics at a progressive think tank. I lead a team of economists that designs the policies that will ensure every person in this country has enough money to thrive, public services they can rely on, and a Green New Deal that will get us to Net Zero with good jobs across the country.
During the pandemic, I worked for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on who would lose their job due to COVID-19, where jobs would be lost, and how the government should respond to stop a wave of unemployment. Our proposed Job Support Scheme was to be rolled out by the Chancellor prior to the resumption of the national lockdown.
I was also the first ever Economist to work for Somaliland’s Ministry of Finance where I helped end extreme poverty. Somaliland is one of the world’s poorest and most fragile nations. While in Somaliland, I co-authored their National Development Plan, designed their Sustainable Development Policy Strategies (adopted by both the current and former Presidents), led their budget policy process, and designed their first ever fiscal and monetary policy frameworks.
During my time at HM Treasury, I analysed the impact of policies and spending on households and led briefing on inequality and poverty. At the Department of Work and Pensions I analysed and costed social security policies as well as conducted research on the future of social security.
My research involved analysing the political and economic causes of inequality as well as its impact on well-being. A brief outline of each chapter can be found below:
The Brilliant Club is a program that sends academics into disadvantaged schools to teach students and help get them into highly selective universities. I taught children at the A-Level and Key Stage 3 levels. The self-designed course I used to teach students can be found below. The program overall doubles the chance of students getting into highly-selective universities (it is not possible to follow individual students performance due to safeguarding).
As the UCU representative for King’s Department of Political Economy, I helped to organise the 2019 Strike against the pension settlements and for better working conditions. In addition, I organised the teaching community against a proposed 33% pay cut for GTAs during the pandemic. We won our fight against the pay cut and the Department’s increased pay award is now the standard across King’s College London.
Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss claim this is a Budget for growth. It is nothing of the sort – the i newspaper
Raising student loan interest rates is another thing that will destroy young people’s futures – the i newspaper
Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement offers little more than sticking plasters for the poorest – the i newspaper
As a former Treasury economist, I know the cost-of-living crisis is a political choice – not a necessity – the i newspaper
Ending Extreme Poverty – New Statesman
The price of the Tories’ cynical economics – New Statesman
Men without university degrees have suffered the biggest hit to employment since COVID – the Conversation
Proportional Representation leads to less poverty and more growth. That is why we should use it to elect a replacement House of Lords – Progressive Britain
We will be the government that builds the future we all need. We will end the Conservative chaos that is making us poorer, sicker and less safe
We will train thousands of doctors, nurses, and teachers. We’ll pay for them by taxing wealthy non-doms and ending private school tax breaks.
Labour and the Conservatives took over 90% of the vote at the last election. It will be a straight fight next time: Red vs. Blue
Everyone is feeling the squeeze as rising energy bills means it harder to make ends meet.
We have the highest energy bills in the G7 because the Conservatives cut investment in home insulation and renewables.
To get our energy bills down for good, we will invest in a home insulation programme and in renewable energy sources bills. That will reduce our energy bills by up to £1,600 a year and stop us sending money to murderous dictators abroad.
Waiting times at Loughborough’s urgent care centre are at 5 hours and rising. At our nearest A&E, less than half of patients are seen within four hours. People are dying waiting for ambulances. Our loved ones lives are being put at risk by public services that are collapsing.
We will invest more money into the NHS for the largest workforce expansion in history – doubling the number of doctor training places and hiring thousands of more nurses. And we’ll pay for it by taxing super-rich non-doms.
How well our children do before and during school will shape the rest of their lives. Both how much they earn and how happy they are.
But Conservative cuts mean that high-quality childcare is unaffordable and inaccessible. We have some of the highest childcare costs in the world. On top of that, school buildings are crumbling and teacher vacancies are at a record high.
We will provide free, high-quality, full-time childcare from the moment parental leave ends so you can go to work and your child can get the best start in life. And we will put more money into your schools by taxing private schools.
Our wages have fallen by £2,800 since 2010. This Conservative government’s cuts to investment have left us poorer after a no-growth decade.
We will end the no-growth decade and get wages rising by investing £28bn a year in in green industries that will create good jobs with higher wages.
I will work tirelessly to make sure those jobs are brought here and make sure we share in the prosperity created by our Green Industrial Revolution.
Nothing is more important for our long-term prosperity than getting to Net Zero. Investing to get our carbon emissions down to zero will be the most effective investment in the history of humankind. The benefits will accrue for all coming time and for every person yet to be born.
Over the next decade, we need to invest in transport, buildings, and renewables to get our carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
We face a housing crisis and a broken planning system that means the wrong houses are built in the wrong places without enough infrastructure. We need more houses. But our broken planning system means that, across this constituency – in Barrow, Shepshed, and Sileby – housing developments are being put down without the infrastructure needed or consideration of the local area. We cannot fix the housing crisis without also getting the support of current homeowners.
If we want more houses to be built, we need to make sure there is a proper plan so that houses are built with enough infrastructure to support them and fit in with the character of the local area. We can build better, more, quality housing that benefits local communities if we plan properly plan and invest in the amenities people need.
Across the constituency, bus services have been privatised, then cut and made prohibitively expensive to maximise (socially damaging) profits. This has led to rising isolation and poverty, especially in our villages.
We need to restore our bus services by bringing them into mutual ownership so that we can maximise social value rather than profits. That would improve people’s quality of life and their bottom line by helping them connect to better job opportunities.
Yesterday's budget was a failure.
It did not raise incomes, it did not fix our NHS, it did not build enough houses, and did not help us stop emitting carbon.
Me speaking with @progbrit yesterday.
🔥Superb @Miatsf on Hunt's new disability benefit sanctions. Argues "what people want and what gov't wants is aligned" but it's about engagement, not punishment.
"What we've had for 13 years, it's been punitive, it's been pretty cruel, and crucially it's been ineffective."🎯~AA
"The Chancellor is like the Captain who has steered the Titanic into an iceberg, and is now placing a lifeboats order while the ship is sinking.
Far too little, far far too late"
My budget verdict for @LBC 👇🏾. And The picture they have used is 👌🏾
Jeremy Hunt is like Titanic's captain ordering lifeboats after he's smashed into the iceberg
Ignore the headline-grabbing measures, today’s budget will not fix crisis Britain and it did nothing to build the ...
www.lbc.co.uk
This is very important
The government is cutting spending *and* using that money for a tax cut that benefits the wealthy the most
Saving from today's NI Cut:
- Average earner: £400
- £50k earner: £700
The government is *raising* income taxes for hardworking families
The National Insurance cut is worth about £400
BUT freezes in income tax and NI thresholds cost the average worker over £650 a year
cc @BenChu_ @RJPartington @andyverity
#autumnstatement2023
This is weird - the Chancellor knows that poverty and destitution has risen dramatically
And we all know it too. The number of foodbank parcels has risen over 25 times
#autumnstatement2023
I've worked in ESA, I've met disabled claimants.
They want to work. They need proper support and jobs they can do.
A responsible government would do that.
Instead, this government is punishing them. Cruelty as spectacle #autumnstatement2023
What about the contribution that doctors and nurses made during the pandemic?
The PM has spent most of the past year slagging them off (after clapping, of course)
#autumnstatement2023
Just nothing on Net Zero at all
To give just one example, government's own target is 600,000 heat pumps a year
Currently only on 60,000
Where's the plan for low-carbon home heating today?
#autumnstatement2023
Ask me a question, offer your support, and keep up to date with my campaign to be your Labour MP.
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