Your 2015 general election Sutton and Cheam candidates

Dave Ash - National Health Action Party

Mr Ash stood for the newly formed Keep Our St Helier Hospital last year in the local elections in Cheam, where he lives with his partner and two young children.

Mr Ash has worked in the electronic security sector since completing his schooling. He enjoys swimming, reading, gardening, electronics and spending time with his family

He said: "I am not part of the “political class” and have never in the past wanted to be a politician.

"The parlous state in which our NHS now finds itself, as a result of the actions of successive governments of all shades, leaves me with no option but to take this stand.

"I feel it is my moral obligation to oppose those who seek to destroy the most cost effective, and best healthcare service in the developed world, which we all need and deserve.

"I initially became aware of the threat of cuts and closures envisaged in the clinically and financially flawed proposals laid out in the disastrous Better Services Better Value scheme.

"This scheme was to be pushed through by the new Clincial Commissioning Groups, which were set up under the Conservative-led Government’s Health and Social Care Act 2012.

"Paul Burstow MP not only voted for this destructive act, he actually led it enthusiastically through Parliament when he was the Care Minister.

"Conservative, LibDem, Labour and UKIP will not act to save the NHS. NHA policies are not only about the NHS. We aim to protect the wellbeing of the UK in its widest sense, fostering a fairer, healthier society.

Emily Brothers - Labour

If elected Ms Brothers would be the first blind woman in Parliament, as well as being the first openly transgender MP. She is divorced and has two adult children who grew up in the borough. She stood in the 2010 and 2014 local elections for Labour.  Professionally, she has worked with the Greater London Association of Disabled People, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Disability Rights Commission and headed up health, local government and participation policy at 
the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

She said: "I’m fighting £40m cuts Sutton Lib Dems are implementing, standing up for community assets – opposing closure of children centres and closure of the theatres.

"I’m lobbying for a new secondary school on a brownfield site to tackle the places crisis.

"I’m campaigning to protect St Helier Hospital, while working to support its long-term viability and develop community based integrated health and social care, calling for a local referendum on the future of St Helier Hospital in 2016.

"I support a Time to Care Fund to secure 8,000 new GPs, 20,000 more nurses, pledge to end NHS competition laws brought in by the coalition and establish guarantees for 48-hour GP appointments and faster cancer testing. I am working for an economic recovery for everyone to share and that tackles the cost of living crisis Sutton families are experiencing.

"That means reforming the banks, higher taxes for the wealthiest, ending low wages and the exploitative labour market, enhancing free childcare, reducing energy bills and extending zone 4 to Sutton.

"I am committed to strengthening vocational education and apprenticeships, building more social and affordable housing, better security for private tenants, improving public transport with a metro-style rail service or tram for Sutton.

Paul Burstow - Liberal Democrats

The MP for Sutton and Cheam since 1997, having come in second in the 1992 election, Mr Burstow has lived his whole life in the borough. He lives in Cheam with his wife Mary, a local councillor, and three children. In 2010 he was appointed Minister for Care Services and drafted the Care Act 2014. With the think tank Demos he established the Commission on the Future of Residential Care September 2014, is chairing a Centre Forum commission on mental health and chaired a commission examining the state of home care in England.

He said: "This area is a great place to live and bring up a family.

"Good schools and quality of life, a well-run local council and a strong local economy thanks to a hardworking Lib Dem team.

"As a life-long local resident I care deeply about our area.

"I am seeking re-election to continue: defending St Helier Hospital against ill-conceived threats to close accident and emergency and maternity units; securing new high schools to meet the demand for school places by 2017 and 2019; supporting a multi-million pound life sciences park in south Sutton to create hi-tech jobs; and working with businesses and the council to increase the number of jobs and apprenticeship opportunities.

"Over the past five years Lib Dems have got the economy back on track, unemployment falling, cut income tax by £800 a year and protected pensioners.

"In Government I took the decisions to outlaw age discrimination in the NHS, double the research budget for dementia and invest in improving access to talking therapies to help children with mental health problems.

"The election here is a straight fight between myself and the Conservatives. Labour have come a poor third here for more than 40 years."

Angus Dalgleish - UKIP

A prize-winning doctor specialising in cancer, Professor Dalgleish has had a varied medical career that saw him graduate from University College London, train as a flying doctor in Queensland, Australia, before specialising in oncology in Sydney. When he returned to the UK he joined the Royal Marsden and he was appointed foundation chairman of oncology at St George’s Hospital in 1991. 
A resident of Cheam for 24 years, he stood for UKIP in the local elections last year. He is married with an adult son. He has co-authored five text books, published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers. He has co-founded three companies and is on the Scientific Advisory Board for several biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

He said: "I first became aware of the effect of ill-thought-through EU directives in daily life when they impacted on my academic clinical studies (Clinic Trial Directive) and the NHS from functioning effectively (Working Time Directive).

I then became aware that all walks of life are negatively impacted by often pointless EU directives, which only the UK appears to formally implement.

Further research shows that the EU wastes billions of pounds a year due to incompetence and fraud, monies that would be much better used here at home.

Furthermore, the tragic failure of the arrogant Euro experiment has led to youth unemployment of up to 50 per cent throughout southern Europe and austerity not seen since the war, which has a direct impact on the UK with uncontrollable migration and lost export markets.

Two eminent economists, Professor Tim Congdon (former Labour advisor) and Roger Bootle have both written that we would be far better off outside the EU, whose real cost to us is probably greater than the NHS budget.

Having had a very successful career, I cannot sit idly by while the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties allow us to enter permanent depression and destroy our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

Pauline Gorman - TUSC

A retired teacher who taught maths and IT in comprehensives and special schools for 35 years, Ms Gorman acted as a National Union of Teachers representative fighting for better pay and conditions for colleagues and students. She has lived in Sutton for 20 years. A former Labour Party member in the 60s, she left in the 90s when the party abandoned calls for nationalisation of major production. She stood for TUSC in the local elections last year in Sutton Central.

She said: "Working people have had enough of austerity.

"It is a cover for a big business agenda. We get poorer while the Tories and their friends get richer.

"Bankers’ bonuses continue skywards, while public services are cut and wages squeezed.

"TUSC is the real alternative to the Tories; to “austerity-lite” New Labour; and to millionaire-funded UKIP.

"We must crackdown on big business tax evasion and implement a tax levy on the super-rich.

"It is an outrage that the richest 1 per cent of the UK population own as much wealth as the poorest 55 per cent. This would eliminate any need for cuts in services and public spending.

"I call for top quality, free education for all, and an end to the “privatisation” of schools.

"Fund the NHS: not the banks, keep big business out of the NHS.

"Cap and control rents; and instigate a massive programme of public house building – creating useful jobs in its wake.

"For £10 an hour minimum wage; to urgently raise living standards and put money back into local economies.

"Cut household bills and travel cost by re-nationalising the railways, utilities and Royal Mail. These industries should be run efficiently as public services."

Paul Scully - Conservative

A former councillor representing Carshalton, Mr Scully has lived in the borough for almost 30 years. He is a school governor at Manor Park Primary and Sutton College,
is married and has two children. He is a Sutton United season ticket holder and volunteers on the stroke ward at St Helier Hospital.

He said: "Local people need a strong voice in Westminster to ensure national policies solve local problems.

"I’ve lived in Sutton for 28 years, building a small business and raising a family.

"My children were born at St Helier and educated in Sutton schools.

"A regular volunteer at St Helier, a school governor, a governor at Scola and a former Sutton councillor, I have a record of standing up for local people.

"My plan to secure a better future for our area focuses on safeguarding opportunities for future generations, ensuring hardworking families feel financially secure, and protecting local services to give residents the peace of mind they deserve.

"If elected, these values will be at the core of what will drive me to help you and your family.

"The Conservatives need 23 more seats across the UK to form a majority.

"Sutton & Cheam is 17th on that list.

"That means people here have a huge influence on who runs our country.

"By voting for me, you can have a hardworking local MP and David Cameron continuing to rebuild our economy and securing an in/out EU referendum.

"The alternative is Nick Clegg or Alex Salmond making that decision."

Maeve Tomlinson
Green

Miss Tomlinson has lived in the borough for about 30 years and is standing as a politician for the first time.A cycle instructor teaching children and adults to ride on the roads safely, Miss Tomlinson has also worked for transport charity Sustrans. She enjoys cross-country running, walking, studying plant life and voluntary nature conservation.

She said: "Locally I am a member of campaign groups, such as Sutton’s Keep Our NHS Public and Get Sutton Cycling.

"With Stop the Incinerator we are working to prevent an unnecessary and polluting incinerator being built so we can save our 400-acre urban nature reserve, on Metropolitan Open Land, which will ensure the Sutton area stays a healthy and pleasant place to live.

"These are times of change and we need to make Britain great again.

"The main parties’ policies and parliamentarians’ private interests have been helping themselves to the public purse, by outsourcing, selling off our assets, land and through the marketising of our services.

"As we’ve seen time and again, publicly owned and publicly run services mean a direct improvement to the lives of everyday people and is the most efficient, economical way to achieve high standards.

"Taxes should be the honour of those who can afford to contribute money to create a fairer and more equal society.

"The Green Party offers a real sustainable alternative, with different political priorities, which challenge trade deals by corporations and investment lawyers, unveiling the lie of austerity, which serves only to shield those who caused our financial crisis."