I’m Barry Morgan and I’m asking you to back me to fight your corner in our nation’s Parliament.

Full statement

It’s a big ask, I know, so here’s why.

Vote for me and from the get-go if elected I’ll ensure you have safe access to a properly staffed surgery to field the concerns of business and of residents and to help find practical solutions.

I’ll always be a hands-on constituency MP wherever the work in Westminster may lead me, and rest assured, that umbilical will never break.

Whether it’s backing the Barrow Waterfront proposal, affordable housing initiatives or industrial enterprise I’ll always argue major investments must prioritise local jobs and families or at least make parallel provision for local needs.

Grandstanding on the floor of the Commons is no doubt an effective and very visible virtue, but doing the hard yards in the lobbies, backrooms and committees to push forward the Reform UK agenda is how I hope to secure lasting change.

I’ve never in my life been a member of any political party, but I’m inviting you now to trust me, to hold firm and keep the faith when you enter the polling booth.

So who am I?

I was born in 1957, raised in London and schooled in Hertfordshire, then studied law at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies before heading north of the border for a postgraduate degree in oil, gas and Law of the Sea.

I cut my teeth reporting on the North Sea bonanza and stayed with journalism for most of my professional life, detouring for a seven year stint in PR and government relations in Vienna, initially for the Opec Secretariat and then for the Opec finance ministers.

I’ve exhibited, researched and travelled close to the ground in the Middle East, China, South Asia and Afghanistan, acquired a strong understanding of how the real world works and why the UK must change the way it does business and engages other nations.

I have lived and worked in three European countries and for a quarter century was based in Accra, Ghana, reporting throughout sub-Saharan Africa on the upstream oil and gas industry, African energy and geopolitics.

I now live in Copeland with my family including a secondary school age daughter and see every day the challenges faced by our Cumbrian communities, many of which are replicated nationwide.

Need for a Veterans Department? Conditions are nothing short of a disgrace. Retroactive aid and generous remedial provision must be offered to all vets and their dependents with full and seamless medical, rehabilitation and social support, from re-training through to fees-paid higher education for all those who serve.

Recruitment must be taken back from the bureaucrats and returned to the military and

I argue that defence spending will soon have to soar well beyond the modest 3% of GDP mooted by Reform if we are to keep our people safe.

Border Force must be strengthened and coastal patrols stepped up if the small boats are to be turned back or stopped and their passengers incarcerated. But it’s really about ensuring all illegals and overstayers are intercepted, detained and whisked away for offshore processing and deportation, currently underestimated at 1.3 million souls, on one of many uninhabited islands in our Overseas Territories.

Waste, Resistance and Mission Creep A root & branch overhaul of local government and the Civil Service is long overdue; the judicial system, the criminal justice system, the prisons and police ‘service’ are all underfunded, all in crisis, overburdened with non-jobs and have lost public confidence.

Oil & Gas Ditch the renewables tax grab and let’s wrap up this whole demented Net Zero distraction – Better we act decisively now to restore the fortunes of the UK’s world class oil and gas industry, embracing also our ample reserves of helium and hydrogen,

Get Fracking Reform will revisit the region’s fracking and coalbed methane potential, incentivise exploration in the East Irish Sea and get that untapped gas ashore, shoring up the relevance of our Rampside Terminal for future generations.

Government in a Straitjacket I will press for the immediate suspension of the Equalities Act, to expunge from these shores all reference to the divisive antiphrastic diktat of diversity, equity and inclusion. Reform will excise the European Convention on Human Rights and the so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards from our national life.

Hate Crime legislation and similar Orwellian provisions throughout the four nations will be removed from the statute book. With free speech we can take back our public spaces and rekindle informed debate on national issues.

No Wokery on my Watch !

Let’s dismantle the institutional legacy left by the Blair and Heir-to-Blair regimes, let’s have that bonfire of laws and quangos we’ve been promised for far too long.

Only Reform UK can get the job done.

Get involved, get onboard