Posted: Fri 1st May 2015

Clwyd South: Susan Elan Jones – Welsh Labour

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Friday, May 1st, 2015

As part of Wrexham.com’s General Election 2015 coverage we invited all candidates from Clwyd South to take part in a written Q&A and present their own written biography:

Personal Statement: This General Election candidates from different parts of the country will come to Clwyd South to try and get your vote.

As many people will know, I come from and live in our local area and I attended Ponciau, Grango and Ruabon schools. My father’s side of the family is from Pentre Broughton and my mother’s side is from Ponciau. That’s why my focus is not about promoting me – it’s about continuing to stand up for local residents and our local area.

During my time as MP, I helped more than 3,000 local families, I campaigned on the issues that matter to people around here like securing jobs, improving the safety of our roads and tackling child abuse.

In Parliament, I acted as a front bench member of Labour’s Parliamentary team. I also Co-Chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Civil Society and Volunteering (Charities) and spoke in a number of important debates. For example, I stood up for proper accountability for MPs by fighting against MPs pay-rises and publishing every single penny my office spent on my website.

I take the work that Parliament does very seriously but I’m not a career politician – before I became an MP, I worked in the charity sector for 15 years.

This election offers a clear choice: between a Labour Party that will stand up for people in our area by tackling the menace of zero hours contracts, scrapping the bedroom tax and investing in jobs and public services, and a Tory Party that will give more tax breaks to millionaires and take our country back to the 1930s.

I’d be honoured for your support to continue to serve our home community.

Each Candidate has also been invited to take part in a written Q&A…

What do you feel is the top local issue for this election and what is your policy on it?

Undoubtedly, it’s jobs and decent employment practices.

That’s why I think scrapping exploitative zero contracts is the most important policy which the Labour Party will be presenting to the electorate at this election. More than 1.8 million across the UK face the indignity of being employed in this way – and a vote for Labour is a vote to ensure that people who do proper work get proper secure contracts. A Labour Government will also give tax breaks to employers who pay the Living Wage.

I’m also pleased that the Labour Party has had the guts to listen to ordinary people’s concerns about the bad side of immigration practices. At the moment, it’s legal for agencies to advertise jobs abroad that they don’t advertise locally. I asked David Cameron about this at Prime Minister’s Questions and he waffled. The truth is he condoned this appalling practice but a Labour Government would scrap it. .

The town centre is a focus for the area, what policies do you and/or your party have to help regenerate it?

The town centre is an important focus for our area and I know that families in this constituency work, shop and socialise in Wrexham. However, I think an even more important question in Clwyd South is that of how we support the villages on the outskirts.

With the constituency being primarily rural villages, the focus has to be on issues such as delivering broadband services, increasing off-grid energy access and access to services such as digital television. The cost-of-living crisis has hit rural communities hard and in Clwyd South our priority must be to stand up for our villages and the people within them.

One thing I think we need to guard against is the tendency locally to focus everything on the town centre. You only have to look at the way the Council initially mis-handled issues around Plas Madoc Leisure Centre to see the danger of this approach.

The current MP was elected with just 24% of the electorate voting for him. Do you think this is a problem? What have you done to attract and encourage people to vote?

Obviously, this question is about the Wrexham constituency – but I think the onus is on us all to encourage more people to get involved. One way I tried to do this in the last five years as MP was by knocking on doors around the constituency twice a month and discussing issues with people. I strongly believe that it is important to get out and speak with people from the area at all times – not just in the month before an election.

I will always encourage everyone who can to vote and I strongly supported the introduction of votes for 16 year olds.

What are your views on how a Welsh town like Wrexham sits inside a Welsh Government and Westminster system and inside Europe?

I think it is important to discuss our place nationally and internationally and I am pleased to see that the question of ‘where we fit’ is one that is being raised at this election.

I think we also need to look at how we fit with regards to cross-border matters. As anyone who understands our areas knows, a large number of families are employed over the border in England while living at home here in Wales. It is not just about how Cardiff factors or how Westminster factors but it is about looking at where we are placed and what policies can support people from our area the best.

One of the reasons this is most important is the issue of fair funding. With David Cameron’s Government having cut more than £1.5 billion from Wales’ budget: affecting our NHS, our education system and a number of other services, I am strongly supportive of Wales receiving a fairer funding settlement from Westminster. This is an issue I intend to pursue if re-elected.

Where do you most strongly disagree with your party’s manifesto? (For the independents: What do you most strongly disagree with that the current government has done).

I don’t think any manifesto (nor indeed any candidate!) can be perfect – but for me, Labour’s commitment to a freeze energy bills until 2017, protecting free bus passes for pensions, tackling the menace of zero-hours contracts, employing 1,000 more health care professionals across Wales and raising the minimum wage to £8 make the Labour manifesto a pretty powerful one. It has the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives in this area and nationwide.

Importantly, unlike with some other parties, Labour’s Manifesto is fully explained with no unfunded manifesto commitments so voters can see where the money is coming from to pay for these promises.

As an MP you may get the chance to bring in a new law via a Private Members bill; if you got this opportunity what law would you seek to bring in?

During my time as Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, I was particularly proud to be able to introduce a Bill on the issue of road safety.

In Overton in 2009, a nine-year-old, Robert Gaunt was ran over and killed by a dangerous driver. The family and people from the village created an excellent campaign to seek justice on Robert’s behalf and I was privileged to be able to help as Member of Parliament by introducing a Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill called on the Government to review how sentencing is made in instances of dangerous driving and, as a result, the Government has committed to a full scale review of driving sentences.

This is an important issue in our area and one that I will continue to fight on if re-elected as MP. A sentence review will bring some measure of justice for the family of those people so tragically killed or seriously injured on our roads but there is still a long way to go and given the chance, I would re-introduce this Bill until its aims are fully realised.

Wrexham is due to become the home to one of the largest prisons in the UK? What is your stance on this?

The prison would be situated within the Wrexham constituency but affects our area more widely. My stance is a strong yes. I support the investment that the prison would bring to the area in terms of jobs and support for local businesses. I am more than a little fed up with patronising comments from London-based pressure groups and Cardiff-based think tanks who spoke out against it without understanding local employment needs. There’s a vital need for a prison in North Wales and I am glad the one coming here will be publicly owned.

The NHS is one of the main talking points heading into the General Election? What changes would you make to how the service is governed and delivered?

I am hugely proud of Labour’s commitment to investment in the NHS and I am glad that we have made it one of the main pledges of our Manifesto. Of course, there are issues we have to solve nationally and indeed locally – and that is why it is vital we work together cross-border and cross-party to do so.

Most people now see the Tories’ £3 Billion NHS re-organisation in England for the disaster it has been.

I am glad that the Labour Party has made a clear commitment to train an extra 1,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals in Wales, funded by a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million. This will bring a big step in helping our services get back on track. The Labour Party is spending £120 more per head on the NHS and Social Services combined in Wales than in England. Increasing integration is vital if we are to create a better, more holistic system that meets the needs of people in the Twenty First Century.

What are your views on fracking and why?

I am supportive of the issue of fracking being devolved in Wales as I believe that we should have the power to decide at home what happens in our area. I am absolutely supportive of the Welsh Government’s moratorium on fracking and during my time as MP, supported Labour’s 13 amendments to protect the UK against exploitation shale gas extraction with barely any safeguards.

My thoughts are that there are important regulatory questions which must be answered well before any extraction can begin and that David Cameron and Tory Ministers have chosen to completely ignore some very legitimate environmental concerns over the last two years.

I believe that any exploitation of Shale gas in the UK absolutely must not come at the expense of our climate change commitments, of which I have always been fully supportive. From a purely personal point of view, I have very serious concerns about the environmental impact of fracking.

What do you think makes you stand out from the other six candidates?

I come from, was brought up and live in our area – one side of the family from Pentre Broughton, the other side from Rhos. I’m not a career politician – that is, I’ve done real jobs! Fifteen years working for charities and, after university, a couple of years teaching overseas.

And having been privileged to act as the Member of Parliament for our area since 2010, I believe that I have a real understanding of how our area works, what it is like to live here and what issues matter to people most. During my time as MP, I made sure that the issues that I spoke about in Parliament came directly from individuals on the doorstep, from local campaigns and from local groups. As far as I am concerned, being a Member of Parliament is not about career politics but about representing your area to the best of your ability.

What do you think to the diversity of the list of candidates for Wrexham?

Well, I could say that with one candidate coming from Chelsea, we must be a pretty diverse bunch! But to be serious, I think we always need to value diversity – such as women and men. people from different ethnic and employment backgrounds – and that we must always get as wide as range a people standing for election as possible.
Candidate Questions:

Do you think you will have the power and or influence to deliver on your promises to the people of Wrexham, if so, why?

During my time as Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, I had the privilege of being a part of the Labour Frontbench. My time in Westminster allowed me to bring up issues that really matter to people from our area such as driving safety, child abuse and the protection of the Welsh language and culture.

It is deeply important that our area is not forgotten when it comes to the issues that matter. If re-elected, I will continue to do all I can to make sure that what matters to people from our area is represented seriously in Westminster.



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