Experienced Liberal Democrat campaigner Ian Garrett is the Aldridge Brownhills candidate for the General Election.

Full statement

Ian is a local teacher, the Head of History at St Francis of Assisi School, a secondary school right in the heart of Aldridge. He is well known to many local families from his years of teaching students from Aldridge and the surrounding area.

Ian has previously been a local councillor and candidate for Parliament in the neighbouring borough of Sandwell, and now lives with his family in Birmingham. As a teacher, Ian is passionately committed to seeing schools nurture young people. Education is vital to develop the life chances of young people, and Ian wants to see a well-funded education for all. He is all too aware that years of Conservative funding cuts mean that school budgets simply do not stretch far enough, and that only the Liberal Democrats, by creating a £17 billion infrastructure fund, part of which will go towards modernising our schools, are able to tackle this issue.

Ian is also committed to stopping Brexit. “Many of the students I teach have families that come from all over Europe”, he comments. “I want to build a better future for all my students, that has Britain at the heart of Europe, not outside it”. As an experienced local teacher, Ian is well aware of how concerned young people are about climate change. He knows that the Liberal Democrats are the only party with a clear and realistic plan to solve the climate crisis. Liberal Democrats are already committed to making all new homes zero carbon by 2021 and developing renewable energy sources – the policies that will ensure a future for our young people and our planet.