I'm Scott Lee and I'm running to be the first MP to represent the new Cramlington & Killingworth seat.

Full statement

I live and work in the constituency and share residents’ ambitions for the area. Labour have parachuted in the wife of Nottingham's Labour MP to represent you. The Tories have parachuted in the former Blyth MP who doesn’t live in our area. On the doorstep I'm finding people are looking for answers to the cost of living crisis and they are not getting them from the two main parties. As the only elected Independent councillor in the constituency, I'm finding people who work full time are having to access food banks. People working two jobs are finding it difficult to make ends meet. The government are taking too much of their pay, and taxing too much on what they spend. Added to surging household bills, rent hikes, and increasing mortgage costs something needs to change so that people working full time can have money in their pockets again. I'm backing a jump in the Personal Allowance to £40,000 in order that many working families can be lifted out of paying income tax. A wealth tax should be introduced for the highest earners to fund this. People are also worried about the state of our NHS. Its getting record funding but its not delivering for the many millions on the waiting lists. Meanwhile, NHS dentistry has collapsed following Labour's distasterous change in contracts, with people literally having to pull out their own teeth. Instead of using the NHS as a political football, we need all parties to sit down and work out what's working in our NHS and what's not. We need a Royal Commission to look at where the NHS can improve and give patients the best healthcare possible. I'm also standing to stop the massive Dysart Development announced on the A19 corridor which will see 2200 homes built on green fields between Cramlington, Seghill and Seaton Delaval. It will cause traffic chaos with a planned new roundabout on the Spine Road that will gridlock the A19 at Moor Farm. Nationally Labour want to encourage these builds, removing the processes that local residents use to fight large scale development. A vote for Labour or the Tories will ensure this development gets the go ahead. I have already submitted an 870 strong petition against this development. There's almost no difference in Labour or the Conservatives policies. A vote for them is a vote for more tax and bigger government, printing money and writing cheques for things they can’t afford and saddling future generations with more and more debt. You'd be replacing one government with failed policies with another. Or you can do things a little differently and elect a strong independent MP who will fight for our area, look after working families, and doesn’t have to be a noddy dog to the London parties. Use your vote wisely, vote Scott Lee for MP.