I felt it was very important to have credible local politically active women members of the Labour Party to put themselves forward to stand for selection in Plymouth Moor View. The last MP was a woman Alison Seabeck who worked very hard for the constituency locally and represented Plymouth nationally as she was on the defence select committee. As a leading woman councillor for the Labour Party in Plymouth and having stood before as a Parliamentary Candidate, I felt that I wanted to have another attempt and could hit the ground running.

It was an unusual selection because it was a snap election, so the process was easier as it was CV only and references.

Snap election, no time for interviews and hustings, application from only.

The most difficult part was making the decision in the first place, really thinking about the impact the election campaign itself would have on your life and when you win, how it will change your life. It is key to be honest with yourself about what you can do and the help and support you will need, if a woman with children or caring responsibilities this has to be considered.

In a normal selection process for the Labour Party, it would be helpful to have experienced mentors to help guide you through the different aspects of building your selection campaign.

I had local support from friends and family plus key councillors. Once the campaign started there was a handful of key people for all aspects of the campaign, social media played a bigger role than ever before. A good local campaign team, some regional support and members from across the South West. It was important to have a couple of safe members of the team around you when things were getting stressful.

Being a councillor, I campaign all year round and it is a key aspect of the job. In the last election, it is a real honour to have spoken to so many people and hear their stories. I also enjoyed hustings and being able to debate with the other candidates, I wish I had done more as it was a key strength, being a councillor, you can see the impact of national politics on local people. In addition, the Labour Party manifesto was so popular and the longer the campaign went on, more and more policies became key.

Due to the brief time between the election being called and polling day, there was no time to reflect which would have been useful, long days meant you were always chasing time.

I would have spent more time using social media and preparing videos and press releases to really get the messages out.

I would have wanted to get a fair deal for Plymouth, as a city we are underfunded for health, public health, education, government grant, transport, every measure you can think of we are in the bottom quartile.

By building a supportive network, more mentoring, more respect. It is also about financial support, especially if there is a caring responsibility to be covered. Women want to support women but there are never enough of us and resources are spread thinly.