I grew up in Basingstoke – I was born in London but moved to Basingstoke when my dad’s job relocated. I am married (I met my husband at QMC) and have two boys aged 5 and 2. My eldest goes to Old Basing Infants.  This ward is a great place for bringing up a family.

I am motivated by making a difference, my whole life I have worked in the public sector or the third sector. I started out working in Westminster, but moved on to local government and then several health charities. I also ran the UK’s first #givingtuesday campaign when I was a campaign manager for the Charities Aid Foundation.

Having worked as a caseworker for an inner London MP in my early 20s, I have been driven by two things; the housing crisis and lack of affordable, decent housing and child poverty. When I was younger I volunteered for a charity called the Home School refugee project which was set up to help children with their homework. It was such an eye-opener as to how challenging these children’s lives were and I often felt ashamed that we lived in such a rich country that allowed this level of poverty.

Having been a labour member and voter, I have felt compelled to get involved. Like most, I am absolutely furious about the state of the government and its constant stream of scandals. I feel now more than ever, with trouble looming in Northern Ireland, a rampaging cost of living crisis and war in Ukraine that we need a Labour government. In Basingstoke and Deane, we have the shameful Maria Miller MP whose only loyalties lie to the Conservative party and a Tory council to prop her up. We need proper scrutiny and can only do that by returning a Labour council.