Philip Woolas*
Labour Party
Oldham East and Saddleworth Constituency
Address
1 Hopkin Mill Cottages
Lees
OL4 5DD
Serious times need leadership
IT’S 207 miles from my house in Sunnybank in Lees to the House of Commons. Most Sundays for the past 13 years I have made the journey in order to bring home the bacon to my constituents.
On Thursday nights, when I return courtesy of the new North-West rail service, I make a note of what I’ve achieved for Oldham.
The list, if you’ll excuse a tad of immodesty, is impressive.
Crime is down. I know many don’t believe it and I get that. I’ve seen the CCTV footage of Yorkshire Street, I’ve been spat at by drunken youths and not so young as well. I know what happens when kids are not brought up properly. But denying it and loosening controls would make it worse. Yet still, the good outweighs the bad. There are more police on our streets and the PCSOs do a difficult job.
It’s not just me who says this: the Chief Constable said that as well as tackling gang crime, neighbourhood policing is rolling out across Greater Manchester.
Education has improved in Oldham. We have Sure Start, nursery places for three and four year olds, new and improved primaries with more teachers and classroom assistants. Our secondary schools are being rebuilt with more teachers, better discipline and more and better equipment. And special needs children are far from forgotten. New Bridge is a world-class school.
Our sixth-form college and our further education college are thriving with eligible students getting their educational maintenance allowance (something I’ve campaigned for for over 20 years) and we now have our own university! The Life Long Learning centre is a jewel in the crown built with money the council and I campaigned for.
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Biography
The 50-year-old has been a Labour MP since 1997. He is the Minister for Immigration and Borders and Minister for the North West and has previously served as Minister for Climate Change and Minister for Local Government. He is married with two children.
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On health, despite the revolution in the NHS, saved from its crumbling state in the 1980s and 1990s, life expectancy for my constituents is still below the national average. So, I will make a priority of campaigning for preventative health care.
Pensioners are better off, no doubt, but the basic pension is still inadequate. And tax credits help people to stay in work. It’s right that people who work should be better off than being on benefits. The minimum wage, a century-old Labour promise, has been a success. We must increase it and protect it.
Being the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth is a serious job. It needs a professional approach. It does not need an amateur. Our constituency takes in the most diverse area in the country and to represent it, I’ve learned, above all else, you have to trust your guts.
I dislike packaged politics. It’s why people are put off. I believe that our politicians need to speak their minds.
I have never been afraid to do so. When our town was torn apart by the riots, I took on the bigots from all quarters. We have beaten off the BNP and I have addressed head on the need to play by the rules whatever the colour of your skin. To be the MP for our area you have to be tough. Very tough.
With the support of my constituents from all communities, we have changed national attitudes to immigration. And for the past two years I have overseen the biggest shake-up since the Second World War.
In 2001, Oldhamers told me they were afraid and I was ashamed of what had happened. We’ve come through it and we are stronger.
I’ve learned also of the trials and tragedies of people’s lives — comforting the parents of a murder victim, getting lifesaving treatment for desperately ill people — these are difficult things.
The upside is the joy — seeing a student’s face as they get their university place, the letters of thanks from constituents for helping to change their lives. In my time as your MP, I have helped over 5,000 families and held over 1,000 surgeries.
The volunteers who run our sports clubs, the youth workers and teachers, the carers of the disabled and mentally ill, the parents and grandparents, the people down on their luck; these are the people I try to help.
I am not, though, asking for your vote just on my record.
I am asking for your vote because these are serious times. Being a Labour MP is about how to use power for the benefit of all your constituents. It is not about being all things to all people.
So what of the future? We all know our area needs the new secondary schools, it needs confidence in the police, it needs to sort out its violent reality and it needs politeness and respect from all.
And that needs leadership and money. Leadership that can only come from someone with guts. Money that only an economic strategy for growth can deliver.
As well as my national manifesto, I also have a series of personal pledges. In 2005 I sent you a DVD about the need for a Christie Centre in Oldham (we have the highest cancer death rates in England). Last month, we opened it.
This time, I am pledged to campaign most especially for our youngsters: we need free bus fares for under 18s. We need Labour’s Jobs Guarantee. We need the expansion of our colleges and university, even more apprenticeships and we need healthy businesses. That needs an economic policy to invest taxes in business opportunities and in services.
I also will campaign for free school meals for all. The cost of a proper meal can be too much for some and the current system causes division.
We need to get rid of the abomination of unadopted roads. We should use the Housing Market money to tarmac them. We should pull down derelict pubs. My Local Government Bill gave powers to the council. We should build new homes on brownfield sites, not on the green belt. I not only supported the Stock Transfer, I made it possible by persuading Whitehall to make a special case for Oldham. That will bring even more investment in houses here.
The building of new health centres will continue — we’ve done the town centre, Shaw and Crompton, Moorside, Glodwick. Next on my list is Saddleworth.
In education, the sixth form college’s science centre is a great initiative and I will help the new principal see it through. On the environment, we need more refitting of homes to reduce gas and electricity bills and new homes must be eco-friendly.
Most important, I will continue to provide a service to you if you give me your vote. I will use my experience to help guide us through the troubled period ahead. What I won’t do is say one thing in Delph and the opposite in St Mary’s.
If you vote for me, you will get what you see. If you don’t, you don’t know what you’re getting.
