Interview with Tom Morton, Labour candidate for Hayes & Coney Hill, Bromley

 Interview with Tom Morton, Labour candidate for Hayes & Coney Hill, Bromley

• Why a Labour candidate in Hayes and Coney Hill?

I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for 8 years, I joined as soon as I could when I turned 16. My family has a rich history of being members of the Labour Party, my dad was a Labour councillor twice before I was born. I’ve always been Labour, it’s part of my life. I decided to run as a candidate mainly because of the age of the average councillor in the UK, only the 10% of councillors are under the age of 40, and that means that young adults and students aren’t represented in most councils and I think that needs to change. I think we as a party, specially in Bromley, we’re definitely trying to do that with a 10% of our candidates in this local election being under the age of 25, and several more being under the age of 30. The other reason is that, for all my life, the Bromley council has always been Conservative and my local representation has always been Tory as well. How can we have a healthy democracy without accountability? It’s always been like this, the Tories haven’t had any accountability in our local council and I think that should change. 

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in your campaign?

In my opinion it’s quite plain and simple, everyone’s priority right now should be the climate emergency. My experience on this subject comes from my final degree project in my Physics undergraduate at the University of York, I’m currently researching whether fusion can help to solve the climate emergency, and that means that a lot of my research is based around the climate crisis and all of its components on a political and public policy level. It’s not looking good at all, so that’s my number one priority and it should be yours and everyone’s undoubtedly.

Other priority that I’m quite passionate about is social housing, I think that currently it’s a big problem in the UK and I don’t believe there’s any chance that any Conservative leadership will ever try to tackle this, Labour’s the only party that has good coherent policy on this issue.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in Bromley?

I believe that Labour at a local and a national level is by far the best alternative in my borough of Bromley. The Conservatives are taking us as a joke, they don’t care and we need to start showing people and get them to understand that they don’t care about them. With COVID and the current cost of living crisis the Tories refuse to spend money on the people they represent. As Labour, we would invest in the people that we represent and try to help them in the current crisis that’s come out of Brexit and the pandemic.

Interview with Will Conway, Labour candidate for Bromley Town, Bromley

 Interview with Will Conway, Labour candidate for Bromley Town, Bromley

• Why a Labour candidate in Bromley Town?

Basically because they deserve better than what they’re getting at the moment, and I think we are the only ones who really have the resources (nationally apart from locally). When you are making promises to people in a national level you should be following that policy at the local level. The LibDems and Greens are never going to be the party of national power, they might grow, but when it comes to the cost of living crisis and so on, they are not going to have a reasonable approach to the reality. Single-issue parties like the SNP have it difficult to show unity, they’ve just got one policy. 

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise?

We’ve got various issues, the national stuff on corruption is also one but that’s more of a thing to get votes. On local issues, the council just refused to spend money on things, they’re letting things run away. We have an issue which is fly-tipping, it’s not only a local issue, it’s a central problem because nobody gets prosecuted for dumping rubbish. Potholes will take ages to do because there’s no one doing anything about them. Council houses are old, housing is another important issue.

Bromley is London’s greenest borough: more than 50% of Bromley is park land, but people don’t use that park land very much. They don’t use the spaces as much as they should. The council don’t spend any money on them. They don’t use the money to spend it on tackling poverty. 

The other thing is environment, Bromley has the worst death rate for air pollution in London, and the council calls it “standard air quality”! They do nothing for schools, with pollution around schools.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in Bromley?

The minor parties don’t seem to be putting anything in, there’s a purely local issues party in Chislehurst which is about speeding, buildings and these things, but it’s not about the people. Labour cares about the people and looks after the poor in the borough, whilst the Conservatives seem to prioritise other wards. I have a plan for the people, I care about the people.