I believe that it’s so important for Parliament to be more representative of the country itself. There are far too few women, and even fewer disabled people so I wanted to show that candidates can be more representative of their communities, and also that politicians can do far more to ensure that people without a voice are heard in Westminster. Besides all that, I thought I could do a better job than the sitting MP who has a terrible reputation for ignoring constituents and being lobby-fodder for the Conservative party, often voting against the interests of our local area.

Unusually easy for the snap election! Originally I applied for the seat and was unsuccessful for the 2015 General Election. For the snap election in 2017 the constituency found themselves without a candidate quite close to the election, so the central party asked me to step in. I think this was based on the fact that I was local and had been active in the party for a long time, but also because I had been on the Lib Dems “Leadership Programme” previously. This was a project to increase the number of talented, diverse candidates in the party.

The Lib Dem process is pretty good in that it’s all about a skills-based assessment rather than patronage and “who you know”. Everyone is judged by the same criteria which makes it much more inclusive.

I think for me it was the fact that I had to find some time to go to London to do an approval day. Getting to London by train is pretty expensive, and I remember that I had to set off really early because the route is notorious in terms of getting delayed.

This would be made so much easier by having regional approval days. The Lib Dems do operate these, but they are often oversubscribed and difficult to get organised in a rush so I’d like to see them do more as they will be more accessible for everyone.

I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve had support from the Lib Dem Campaign for Gender Balance previously, and also was allocated a mentor who was an existing MP as part of the Leadership Programme. Baroness Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem President has been a particular support and has been a great source of advice and encouragement over the years.

Part of the reason that I want to be an MP in my local area rather than looking for seats anywhere and everywhere is that I love where I live. I love the community and it was an honour to be considered to be their MP. Listening to people’s opinions and life stories was a really great part of the election, and I particularly enjoyed talking to different groups and hearing their experiences, like farmers and faith groups.

The area where I stood has a particularly nasty group of male opposition Councillors. I was accused of being a “terrorist sympathiser” and mocked for being disabled at every occasion, but they didn’t realise that their taunts and slurs just spurred me on! They are terrible representatives of our community, and give Conservatives a bad name.

By the time I became the candidate, the election was very close at hand and I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time as I wanted to on the doorstep or meeting people and talking about why I wanted to be their MP and listening to the issues that they faced. I would have a much longer campaign next time and meet as many people as I could.

From back when I was the youngest Councillor on a local authority, to standing for Parliament I have wanted to do two things 1) make life better for people where I live by giving them the tools to get on in life – from a decent education, right through to looking after our elderly and sick and treating them with dignity, and 2) show that people like me can be politicians. I want to help people realise that decisions in our country should be made by people who are reflective of our country.

Ask them!
We should look around our communities and encourage people to take part. We should mentor them so that they don’t feel like it’s a lonely or scary existence and importantly we should support them practically, whether that’s looking after their kids for a night or driving them around to appointments so that they have the time to think or rest for 10 minutes, it will all help.