LIBERAL DEMOCRATS have selected their candidate to fight the General Election for the Beverley and Holderness Parliamentary seat to be held on 7th May 2015.
Denis Healy says on the constituency party’s website that he is looking forward to campaigning in the constituency on how the Liberal Democrats will build on their achievements delivered in government. He fought for the Hull North seat in the last election coming second to the Labour Party.
In the last General Election the Liberal Democrats achieved second place in Beverley and Holderness (Results Election 2010) with a vote of 12,076 to Conservative Graham Stuart’s 25,063 votes.
We don’t have a photograph of Mr Healy, but will add one as it becomes available.
Denis Healy’s statement on being elected:
“Thank you for selecting me as your Liberal Democrat PPC for the 2015 General Election in Beverley and Holderness.
The last 5 years have seen our party in government for the first time in living memory, and at the last election I campaigned hard in Hull to present a vision of a fairer Britain with Liberal Democrats in government.
“I am extremely proud of what the party subsequently delivered in government, even though I didn’t quite make it to Westminster myself to help make it happen. However, I am really looking forward to the next few months and the opportunity of shouting from the rooftops about the stronger economy and fairer society that Liberal Democrat ministers have created, despite resistance from our Conservative coalition partners.
“We delivered an £800 tax cut to low and middle income earners by keeping our election promise of raising tax thresholds to over £10,000. George Osborne fought this change bitterly, preferring to stick to the Conservative manifesto pledge of cutting inheritance tax for rich people in line with his Conservative instincts.
“At a time when, as Liam Byrne’s note so memorably said, there was “no money left,” the Liberal Democrats did what Labour failed to do; deliver a big tax cut for those under the most pressure, and in the next Parliament we will go even further, by allowing people to keep even more of their hard earned income as we move towards raising the personal tax allowance to £12,500, financed by taxes on high value properties, with everyone paying their fair share.
“We have protected schools budgets and introduced the pupil premium to help children who might otherwise have fallen behind.
“We have increased free childcare to 15 hours a week for 3 and 4 year olds and have introduced free school meals to all infant classes, ensuring that all infants are receiving a good daily meal that saves the family money and means they are better able to focus on learning.
“We have secured the biggest ever cash rise in the state pension with our triple lock policy on uprating, and we have introduced ground-breaking pension reform by ending the unfairness of compulsory annuities, and instead allowing people to spend their hard earned money as they choose, rather than lining the coffers of insurance companies.
“We are the only party that is serious about mental health issues and ending the stigma attached to mental illness, committing substantial funding to improving mental health services in our NHS.
“We have created 2 million higher level apprenticeships, training our workforce for 21st century jobs and tackling the engineering skills gaps which could be so damaging to our economy if we are not careful.
“We have also created certainty about the date of the next and future General Elections. The Fixed Term Parliament Act has ended the Prime Minister’s power to call an election when it suits the governing party. How unfair it was to blow the final whistle before the end of the match just because your team happened to be in the lead!!
“I’m looking forward to campaigning in the constituency on how the Liberal Democrats will build on these achievements in the coming parliament if we are returned to power. The old excuse of “The Liberal Democrats can never achieve power” has been laid to rest by the last 5 years of coalition government and by the real differences we have made.
“I am proud of a Britain that is diverse and internationalist in its outlook, economically strong, open for business, enriched by its cultures and generous to those who suffer unbearable hardship in other parts of the world.”
That’s a pretty slim list of achievements.. Raising the tax threshold has mostly benefited those on higher earners. ,not the low paid.. There are 5 million people in work, who don’t earn enough to benefit from higher thresholds. ( ONS – Office of National Statistics) .
But Mr Healy is too modest to mention the LibDems other achievements – like voting in 2.5% VAT increase, the Bedroom tax, NHS reorganisation and privatisation, £9000 student fees, £3bn in Social care cuts now impacting the NHS beds and costs. As well as all the other Tory cuts they have voted through.
And all this pain was supposed to eliminate the deficit. But nearly five years on we find its actually increasing and Osbourne has borrowed £200bn more than he said he would, in fact more than Labour did in the previous 13 years !
The Liberals should be ashamed of their record of in Government, in enabling such a right wing agenda which hasn’t even delivered on its own objectives.