The residents of Wokingham Without have shown a wonderful community spirit during the pandemic – helping elderly neighbours with shopping, checking in with each other, and delivering prescriptions. I know because I live here. But we also need support from national and local government, and it is being withdrawn. We may be leaving lockdown, but there is still a long and bumpy ride ahead.

During the pandemic, more people than ever in this ward have relied on the £20 Universal Credit uplift – which the government plans to remove as the cost of living soars. The Conservatives should not have scrapped the uplift. The govemerment should not have reinstated the Minimum Income Floor, which which hit the self-employed hard just as they were beginning to recover from the ravages of the pandemic.

In our ward we have overstretched GP surgeries, overcrowded schools, unaffordable public transport, and depleted social services. ‘Underfunded’ is the common denominator here, because years of national and local Conservative control has pushed these crucial services to breaking point. Energy prices are rocketing, food bills are rising and the cost of fuel is astronomical. We are in crisis, and the Conservatives in power do not care.

Labour does not think that partying in No 10 while our loved ones died in isolation is ‘fluff’. Labour takes lives and livelihoods seriously. I take lives and livelihoods seriously. Send a message to our government on 5^th May  – we have had enough of their policies and their rhetoric. Vote Labour.