Dudley Election : Three thoughts after the results from winners and loosers.

Express & Star

James Morris, Conservative, Labours Alex Ballinger and Sonia Kumar , speaking after the results.

Transcript

00:00Yes, I'm James Morris. I was a former Member of Parliament for Raleigh-Rhodes.

00:07What's your reaction to this?

00:09It's obviously very disappointing but I think I can be proud of the work that I did over the last 14 years.

00:15We fought a really good campaign, focusing on local issues and what I delivered over the last 14 years.

00:22But local campaigns can only take you so far.

00:25The national picture is obviously extremely challenging for us.

00:29But as I say, I can be very proud of the work that I did over the last 14 years.

00:33How far does it want to go?

00:37Yes, I think it's had a big impact.

00:40I think you need three elements in an election campaign.

00:43Good groundwork, you need a leader that people resonate with and you need a good policy platform.

00:49I think the reality of this election is that we only had one of those three elements.

00:54And the national picture is a drag on what I wanted to do in Hale's Owen.

00:58But I focused on local issues, the things that I delivered.

01:02And in the end, that's the important thing for a Member of Parliament to do, representing their community.

01:07What message do you want to give to the party?

01:10I think that's absolutely right.

01:12I think there needs to be a period of reflection on how we got to where we are tonight.

01:17And then we need to move forward from there.

01:20But we need to be honest about some of the things that went wrong.

01:23And we need to set out our support to see how we can recover from this position.

01:30I say hello to myself in Hale's Owen and Cathy in Stourbridge.

01:34I've been waiting for the third result in Dublin.

01:37But I think I see the nation voting for a change of direction and for the new Labour party.

01:45So I really want to focus on helping the high streets in Hale's Owen, in Great Leheap and Old Hill.

01:51Looking at how we can support more independent shops.

01:54Looking at how we can crack down on antisocial behaviour.

01:57Extra police officers in the community.

01:59I'm also really interested in helping GP surgeries.

02:02So that people can see their family doctors again.

02:05They can access their GP surgery more easily.

02:07And the waiting list can be brought down for constituents in council.

02:11There are lots of things that have not been working over the last 14 years.

02:15And I'm mostly focused on sorting out those public services.

02:18So they can really deliver on the people in our constituents.

02:25Well we've announced some increases to pay for what's in our manifesto.

02:29But everything that we've been talking about has been fully planned and posted.

02:33So there is nothing in there that we expect to make any additional changes.

02:37Our main focus for that is to grow the economy.

02:40So Rachel Reeves has been very clear.

02:42Our big focus is to really bring back business investment.

02:46Support confidence in the economy.

02:48Get us growing again.

02:49So we can put more money in the long term into our public services.

02:52I can definitely talk to the legal office.

02:54Just talk in to Royce.

02:56It's been chaotic.

02:57It's been 14 years of chaos.

02:59And they want change.

03:00And I think as a physiotherapist, a frontline worker.

03:03They believe and have trusted me to make a change here.

03:06Do you think the white and black and English form had an issue?

03:11I think they had a majority and I can't deny that.

03:15But we were clear.

03:17We've won.

03:18And I'm so pleased and so proud of what we achieved.

03:20And what I can't achieve with this.

03:22What do you aim to do for the constituency?

03:24So as an NHS physiotherapist, health and equality is something that's really important to me.

03:28And I'd really like to change that.

03:30We're all about business.

03:31We want to get small and SME businesses back up and running again.

03:34And empty town centres in particular.

03:36These empty shops to be taken up.

03:38And places where we can start up and scale up.

03:41So thinking about education and health is something that I'd be really interested to do.

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