My General Election Campaign Launch
Today I launched his campaign to be reelected as MP for Blackpool South alongside local poet Nathan Parker and Lisa Nandy, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Member for International Development, and MP for Wigan for the past 14 years.
I held my campaign launch in Kingscote Park, my old stomping ground, alongside friends, supporters and family – including my 3-month-old son Cillian who joined the celebrations.
Behind me was my old school, St Mary’s, where I was first inspired by some brilliant teachers who set me on the road to becoming your MP. Beyond that is Grange Park, where my grandparents moved into one of the first council houses built there. It was a progressive Labour government that gave them that start in life.
Housing was an important theme for Lisa too.
She said: “Imagine what people in Blackpool could do with a Labour government that backs them. One that fights alongside them to build housing in every part of this country and end the wild west that the private rented sector has become. People can be turfed out on their ears with just a few weeks’ notice after years of building a home and a community.
“Council Housing is not a dirty word and under Labour it never will be again. We’re going to build council housing and we’re going to build social housing.”
The location of the launch was significant to this campaign as Layton, along with Grange Park, Claremont and Warbreck, will move into Blackpool South in boundary changes for the general election on 4th July.
Our constituency has grown in size and with me elected as your MP we can also grow in strength. We have lived under a dark cloud of Tory austerity measures, deep council funding cuts, the decimation of our beloved NHS and the dismantling of our communities. It’s time to turn the page on 14 years of misery.
Lisa talked Labour’s track record in government to illustrate that the party is up to the challenge.
“We’ve got to go out here and fight with confidence, because we know that we can do it,” she said. “We’re going to inherit the worst economic situation since the Second World War, but we’ve done it before.
“It was out of the devastation of the Second World War that the Attlee government built more council houses than any other government in history and took public goods back into public ownership for the common good.
“It was out of the devastation of the Thatcher years that we rebuilt our great towns and cities across the North of England, and lifted a million children out of poverty with the mantra ‘Education, Education, Education’. That gave kids from Blackpool and kids from Wigan chances and choices for the first time in their lives. And with Keir Starmer as leader we are going to do this again.”
Big thanks to local author and spoken word artist, Nathan Parker, who moved attendees with his poem Blackpool which addressed common perceptions of the town by outsiders. He said:
“They might see boarded up shops, a town with few remaining leisures,
I see families surviving on the breadline, torn apart by austerity measures,
Yet still maintaining our unique spirit, one of many familiar treasures.
“They might see arcades, rock and rides and think that’s all that we’ve got,
I see the theatre, I see artists, athletes, musicians, businesses, educators – the lot.
And I want us to focus on the things that we are, instead of the things that they think we’re not.”
Under Labour we can restore pride and purpose in Blackpool South and beyond. Labour has a plan to get the NHS back on its feet, bring about economic stability, improve work opportunities and tackle anti-social behaviour.
Only a Labour government can bring about real change for the country. With your support I will make sure Blackpool South finally gets the future we deserve.
Lisa added: “We’re going to build a country in which everybody counts and everybody matters. Chris Webb embodies that sentiment more than anybody I’ve met in politics. I’m proud to stand alongside him as your candidate once again. I’ll be even prouder to watch those words ‘Labour hold’ for Blackpool South and ‘Labour government’ flash up on the screen in just a few weeks' time.
“If we want it we’ve got to fight for it. When word went round that Chris was going to be our Labour candidate I can’t tell you what a shot in the arm it was for us North West MPs because he’s a fighter.
“Every word of Nathan’s poem resonated with me. As the neighbouring MP for Wigan for the last 14 years I’ve had a ringside seat to the absolute hell that the Tories have brought on our communities and the people in them. We’ve needed fighters like Chris.
“Let’s get this man elected and let’s change this country for good.”
Blackpool MP will be back on the campaign trail just four weeks after being elected
