Background I grew up in Hove.

Full statement

Went to Cardinal Newman School and then to university at the London School of Economics. My career has been spent in the IT industry with large companies like IBM and HP, as well as smaller companies and start up tech businesses. I am now an adviser to several tech businesses.

Hove has been my home for most of my life. It’s a great place to live but could be so much better if we didn’t have a Green or Labour run council focusing on the wrong things.

I am a passionate Albion season ticket holder and a keen follower of Sussex cricket.

I found myself politically homeless 4 years ago. As a lover of freedom, I felt the continued lockdown of the country was unnecessary and ruinous to the future of our country in so many ways. The way that the state and all the levers of power worked together to frighten the population into submission has left a lasting negative impression on me.

I was a lifelong Conservative voter but feel the Tories have totally lost their way. They have made my country a much worse place in which to live. A Labour government will make it even worse.

I don’t see myself as a politician but rather I am a very concerned citizen of the UK. I am very worried about the direction the country has taken and will continue to take if we don’t make dramatic changes to our direction of travel. That is why I am standing for the Reform party. They are the only party with the clarity and courage to put us back on the right path.

Beliefs

I believe in the values that have emerged in Britain over many hundred years; freedom, decency, tolerance, the rule of law. We have been a positive beacon to the world.

We need a vibrant enterprise led economy, with low taxation and rewards for those in work.

The public sector has got far too large and needs a concerted effort to reduce its size.

The level of legal (and illegal) net immigration is totally unsustainable at over 700,000 a year. This needs to be significantly reduced. Some immigration is good but the public services cant cope with the current level. It is also seriously jeopardising social cohesion.

We must attack wokeness which is so prevalent in the public sector and big business. The extremists of the gender war need to be stood up to. The wokerati have made us a more colour conscious society through their obsession with white guilt and critical race theory. I don’t believe in this at all, and it must be stopped.

A big negative impact of this cultural wokeness has been the public’s declining respect for the police. It feels that it has become politicised and is focusing on the wrong things; so, called ‘hate crimes’ instead of real crimes. The police need an overhaul. They need to reprioritise and get really tough on the knife crime epidemic, burglary and shop lifting and general thuggish anti-social behaviour.

I am against net zero. It hasn’t been thought through and will significantly weaken our economy and hurt those least able to pay for this middle-class luxury. It has become a secular religion. Common sense needs to come back into the debate.

The NHS has been failing for many years to adapt to the requirements of modern society. Both parties have politicised debate on the NHS and both have failed it. It needs radical reform not more money.

Locally

My biggest issue locally is the pollution of our sea with regular discharges of sewage by Southern Water. I am an all-year-round swimmer and am disgusted that in 2023 we can’t swim off our beach in Hove for fear of being made ill through sewage.

The clamping down on graffiti; weeding the pavements; fixing pot holes and making the city a fantastic pro-business City would also be priorities.