Of all the conversations I’ve had with voters during this election, one in particular has really stuck with me.
It was with a disabled veteran in Wroughton. I spoke to him through his front window as he told me from his wheelchair of his service, his injury on a domestic training exercise, and his subsequent battle through two rounds of homelessness.
There has been precious little support for him. He had to wait a painfully long time not just for housing, but then for the adaptations he needed. Now with a long-term condition, his neighbours are seriously worried for his health and welfare.
If I’m lucky enough to be elected on Thursday, then it’s people like that man, and that concerned and tight-knit community around him, that I want to stand for.
This election is personal for me, because it’s about home.
I was born here in the county – in Swindon, at the old Princess Margaret Hospital – and my family has lived in Wroughton since the early 1990s.
I’m proud to be the only candidate from the main parties standing in the election who was born and raised in Wiltshire. I went to comprehensive school here, at The Ridgeway School, where I was a student the last time Labour went from opposition into government.
So this constituency is home – always will be – and I’m so proud to have the chance to represent it.
I didn’t always think that I wanted to get involved in politics, but I’ve seen the impact that it has on people’s lives, whether they engage in it or not. From my first job (in a retail outlet, earning around £2 an hour, before the National Minimum Wage) to the quality of care I received when I was diagnosed with testicular cancer; and from standards in higher education, to how easy (or not) it was for me to start my own business, politics is everywhere.
Of course, where politics has really impacted me is in terms of the rights that I and many others now enjoy: the right to marry the person I love, and to have discrimination against us ruled out in law.
Politics may often frustrate or scandalise us, but it can also literally change lives; and even if you don’t care about it, it cares about you.
So why get involved in it this time around? I said when I launched my campaign to be East Wiltshire’s MP that I was standing because I was tired and angry – and I am.
I’m tired of the way in which government has been treated like a game by people who only seem to have been in it for themselves; and angry about the consequences that that has had for ordinary people who have found themselves without the funds, services and support they need.
But I’m also hopeful, because I believe in my country and in the basic decency of its people, and in the possibility that better days lie ahead of us.
I wanted to stand this time not just because I was sick of the incompetence and scandal, and because I believe that if you see something as important as politics and government going into a death spiral, then it’s not good enough just to sit there and tut. You have to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to do something about it.
I also wanted to stand because there are two futures ahead of us. In one, we continue to duck the big decisions as a country – deferring the hard choices as others race ahead of us socially and economically, and the international picture darkens around us.
In the other, we start to turn the listing ship of state around. We build an economy which is fit for the middle of the 21st century – growing, greener, and fairer; we transform our public services with investment, reform and technology; we resume our rightful place in the world, leading on the climate, security and human rights; and we tackle the problems which blight our society – poverty, disadvantage, and crime.
For the last ten years I’ve worked in the private sector, but before that I worked in politics. I’ve seen the worst and the best of it, and I’ve seen what good MPs and bad ones look like, on both sides of the aisle. I’m Labour through and through, but am not so blinkered that I think good ideas and good people only come from my party.
I know how to campaign in Westminster and how to get things done. I think our communities need that, and somebody who can hit the ground running after the election. This is no time for a novice. But it is time for change.
Everywhere my team and I have been during this campaign, we’ve heard the same message over and over: people who say, “I’ve voted Conservative all my life, but I can’t put up with this any longer. I’m voting Labour this time.” On Thursday, those people, and everybody else, will get their chance to make a historic change here in East Wiltshire.
If the polls are right, then it is desperately close, and every vote is going to make a difference. If you want the Conservatives out, then I’m asking voters from every party to lend me your votes this time.
My promise to you is simple: I will stand up for you, I will work hard, and I will be the best representative I can possibly be.
And the reason for that promise is also simple. It’s because this is home.
ROB NEWMAN
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for East Wiltshire
