GE2019: Q&A with the candidates standing for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency

Lauren Dingsdale (Labour)

1) What are three key local issues facing your constituency, and how would you address them?

Jobs: Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution would be transformational for jobs on Teesside – as we lead the way in technologies such as carbon capture and storage. Northern powerhouse needs to be more than a slogan!

Education: Since 2010, schools in our constituency have lost £26 million in funding. I have signed the School Cuts Pledge and will fight to give all schools the funding they need to deliver high quality education for every child.

Crime: Cleveland Police has had 500 officers cut since 2010. I will campaign for more bobbies on the beat to police our streets properly.

2) Leave, remain or second referendum – what is your stance on Brexit, and why?

I support a public vote – with a credible leave option (that won’t further damage the economy in the North East), put to the people alongside the option to remain. The great thing about the Labour policy is that your vote will matter just as much as any politician’s – and we really will have Brexit over and done with, within 6 months. Politicians have wasted three and a half years, let’s put it back to the people for a final say.

3) Should people be prepared to pay additional tax to fund improvements in public services, like the NHS?

Free at the point of use public services, like the NHS, are how we ensure a decent standard of living for everyone in our country. Those earning over £80,000 should be prepared to contribute a little more. 95% of people will pay no more income tax under Labour’s plans, and Labour will clamp down on tax evasion to ensure everyone pays their fair share.

4) High streets are struggling – what would you do to rescue them?

Labour will reform the business rates system to help small businesses, stop bank branch closures, and give local government new powers to put empty shops to good use. We will preserve and modernise our libraries with WiFi and computers, and give local groups the first chance to buy pubs when they close. We will bring Royal Mail back into public ownership, and reunite it with the Post Office to create a Post Bank that provides affordable banking, and business advice to every community. Locally we need better public transport access to highstreets, particularly places like Loftus and Skelton.

5) What does the Northern Powerhouse need to make it work?

Actual investment, not empty rhetoric and electioneering. We were promised a Northern Powerhouse 9 years ago and we have seen nothing. Labour’s £250 billion National Transformation Fund will deliver investment on a huge scale. We will upgrade our energy, transport, and other networks, and replace and improve schools, hospitals, and council houses across the region. This will be done effectively by putting power into the hands of the communities and people who know the area best. A powerful section of the Treasury Unit will be established here in the region, shifting the centre of decision making away from London.

Simon Clarke (Conservative)

1) What are three key local issues facing your constituency, and how would you address them?

The main challenge is the need for more skilled, well-paying jobs. That’s why we need to get behind Mayor Ben Houchen and the regeneration of the former SSI site, and get a Freeport at Teesport after Brexit to boost trade.

The second thing we need to sort is policing. I’m delighted that Boris is delivering 20,000 more Police and that Loftus Police Station is reopening, but we need fundamental reform of Cleveland Police.

The third big challenge is education – specifically, improving outcomes at secondary school level. Our young people are no less talented than those from anywhere else.

2) Leave, remain or second referendum – what is your stance on Brexit, and why?

Leave. I campaigned and voted to leave the EU and as MP I have consistently stood up for the people’s decision, alone among Teesside’s MPs. In thousands of doorstep conversations here I’ve never found the slightest belief that we want Labour’s second referendum – people rightly say that this is about respecting democracy. The last year has shown that the only way we’ll get Brexit done is by clearing out the democracy-denying Labour MPs and delivering a Conservative majority Government that has the ability to get Boris’ new deal through Parliament.

3) Should people be prepared to pay additional tax to fund improvements in public services, like the NHS?

The Conservatives are delivering a record NHS budget increase that means our health service’s budget will be £33.9 billion/year higher by 2023/24 than in 2018/19. This is only possible because our economy is strong – if you wreck the public finances, you can’t afford great public services. Our country is already paying more than enough tax and our focus is on reducing the cost of living for 31 million people through Boris’ cut to National Insurance.

4) High streets are struggling – what would you do to rescue them?

Our high streets are vital to our communities and some are struggling, in large part because of changing shopping habits. We can’t look to return to an era before out-of-town shopping and the internet: we need to make them work for the 2020s. The Conservatives will cut business rates for shops, cinemas and pubs. The average corner shop will get a £1,400 cut in their business rates. Up to half a million businesses will benefit, with the discount extended to all cinemas and music venues. Middlesbrough and Loftus are both candidates for major investment from our Future High Streets Fund.

5) What does the Northern Powerhouse need to make it work?

Above all else, our region’s employers need certainty so they can make plans and investment decisions. That means ending the “will we, won’t we” confusion about leaving the EU and delivering the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, rather than yet more dither and delay with Jeremy Corbyn’s second referendum. We also need investment, and that’s why the £137 million the Government’s given for the SSI site regeneration, together with tens of millions more for transport improvements, is so important. I’m fighting to bring new green job-creating technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage to our area.

We are still yet to receive responses from Liberal Democrat candidate Jemma Joy and Green Party candidate Sophie Brown. We will add these responses as soon as we receive them.