Living in Oban with my husband and our two youngest children, I’m truly honoured to have been selected to run for election in Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber for Reform UK.

Full statement

I am not a career politician. I am an ordinary working-class woman who cares – that’s what makes me different – I really do care.

I am originally from Northumberland so understand the everyday difficulties faced by rural communities with little or no connectivity and wicked winters! Between us, my husband and I have 8 children and 7 grandchildren so there isn’t much we haven’t encountered on the joys of parenthood, especially the hardship and teenage years.

My mam worked in the local ‘dole’ office and my dad was a miner during the 80s, and although we had nothing because of the strike, we lived in a close knit community that got through it with humour and kindness. Worst memory was having to queue at the church for lunch during school holidays. My dad inevitably lost his job but retrained as an offshore welder and life moved on.

I have in excess of 25 years public sector experience at local, regional and national levels including managing what was the only National Identity Fraud Unit in the early 00s, moving on to managing serious and organised fraud and abroad fraud teams. I have also worked in benefit departments, local authorities and more recently have contracted to provide a variety of services to mainly public sector organisations in project management, research, policy development, and investigative/compliance roles.

During Covid, I worked on the National Test and Trace Programme delivering inter-ministerial group meetings and maintaining liaison for the devolved Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, developing the governance protocol to ensure a true ‘four nations’ approach’ in delivering the national Covid19 response.

It is time to put our needs first and we will only achieve this through abolishing Westminster’s first past the post system. Reform UK would introduce proportional representation for UK parliamentary elections, ensuring every vote counts. I will actively campaign for proportional representation in Westminster, making sure the people of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber are heard loud and clear.

I believe real independence is independence from government, doing what we want in the way we want to do it. The UK is one of the most centralised advanced democracies, that needs to change. Reform UK supports localised distribution of power and will deliver this by taking devolution to a new level, we will devolve more power from Westminster and Holyrood to regional levels. Look at the influence Metro Mayors in England have. If it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for the people of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber. Only a Reform UK Government will deliver more devolution and independence from Westminster and Holyrood whilst retaining the safety and security of the Union.

To that end, I will work tirelessly to serve the people of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber to ensure we are heard loud and clear in Westminster and beyond.