I am the Labour & Co-operative Party candidate for local elections in  Hitchin Walsworth this year.

I come from a working class family, left school without A Levels and have spent the past 10 years raising my 5 children.

Whilst at home with my children I became disenfranchised and felt disempowered. I watched, horrified, as the Conservative government gradually stripped our schools of funds and handed them out to private companies who put profits before pupils and sold off pieces of our NHS, having experienced first hand the catastrophic effects of austerity. But I had no idea how someone like me could make any difference?

I had had enough. That’s when I joined the Labour Party.

I want to be part of shaping a world where the vulnerable are supported, where there is true equality of opportunity and where society works for the many. This is why I joined the Labour Party. It is an organisation which celebrates diversity and encourages and values the input of people from all walks of life and circumstance and is dedicated to being truly representative of the communities it serves.

I joined the Labour Party to change the world.

As a Labour councillor I will strive to be a representative of, and role model for other women and I want to be part of a government that is working for the people and supporting the most vulnerable members of our community. I believe that this would put me in a position which will allow me to support and encourage other women and working class people to aspire to lead and to take on positions from which they can shape our communities, our country and our world.

I feel very strongly that having women representatives in local government is the first step in improving voter turnout and engagement in women.

I want to be a voice for our community and to use my experience and skills to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

I am a passionate advocate for education and have spent the past 8 months campaigning for proper school funding both locally and nationally. With no promise of further funding from central government I will continue to fight for an education system which works for every child. I am sick of hearing the government claim that there are record levels of funding in education when their own figures prove an average loss of 8% per pupil since 2010, when the Conservatives came to power. Almost every school in this country is now facing a shortfall yet the government thought they could paper over years of chronic underfunding with money for “little extras” in last year’s budget where we saw more money promised for potholes than schools.

Our country is in desperate need of proper social change and this can only happen with Labour in power in central and local government.