Witham Liberal Democrats have selected Ashley Thompson as their Parliamentary Candidate to fight the Tory incumbent Priti Patel at the forthcoming General Election.

Full statement

Ashley has lived virtually his entire life in Essex, having attended Southend High School For Boys and University of Essex, before embarking on a career in classical music Ashley spent a year as a Choral Scholar to Chelmsford Cathedral and now directs Witham Choral Society and, from April 2024, St. Nicolas Parish Church, Witham. He is a Lib Dem Councillor at Chelmsford City Council.

His work as an educationalist has led him to believe strongly in the need for better mental health support in schools. The Lib Dems are pushing for a state funded mental health support worker for EVERY school in the UK. This will be funded by tripling taxes on the big social media companies, who are so culpable in exacerbating body image and self esteem issues in our young people.

The state of the NHS is another top concern for Ashley, who believes we need to adopt an Invest to Save approach, because out of control and ever rising waiting lists are a total false economy. He is bewildered by the NHS real term cuts of £1.3billion planned for 2024/25 - money which could instead fund 31 million GP appointments!

Ashley says: "It's time the people of Witham stopped being taken for granted and had a proper voice. I've seen first hand the true extent of the toll that endless Tory cuts have had on youth services, child and adult social care, mental health services and most immediately visible of all, local highways. I have experienced at close quarters the effects of the cost of living and housing crises on everyone, but most especially the young, and am more than prepared to fight vested interests in an effort to create a fairer and greener society for all."