General Election 2024: hear from the candidates standing in Dumfries and Galloway
We asked for your help to build a Citizens’ Agenda - and you delivered!
As part of the The Scottish Beacon local news collaborative, we wanted candidates in the General Election 2024 to answer the questions which really matter to the people in the Glenkens and district, rather than the the agendas set by the political parties.
The response to the survey from the Glenkens was excellent, covering a wide range of really important issues, many of them specific to our rural communities. We amalgamated topics to whittle the list down to 9 questions and these were sent to the 7 candidates standing in our constituency.
The questions were:
How will you influence UK trade and industry policy to develop sustainable, climate positive jobs which target rural poverty and wealth inequality?
How will you ensure all households & businesses can access affordable super-fast broadband in the very near future?
How do you plan to impact transport policy to improve roads and access to public transport in rural areas?
What plans will you and your party implement in order to support vibrant and dynamic rural communities, increase access to essential services, build community wealth and decrease inequality?
What are you able to do to address the shortage of rural housing stock?
How do you plan to address the climate crisis and combat environmental degradation in the UK?
What will you do to ensure that the UK implements an immigration policy that properly supports the positive contribution that immigrants bring?
Will you advocate for further devolution in Scotland and what is your stance on Scotland being an independent nation?
How will you work in the UK parliament, and with your MSP colleagues on issues, such as funding for the NHS and education, which while budget responsibility is devolved, depend on funding from the UK government?
We also asked candidates for a short statement on any connections they have to the Glenkens area, and what they plan to do in parliament to make a positive material difference to us all.
Their replies are below, listed in the order received, together with links to find out more from each party.
The views are the candidates own and do not represent the views of the Glenkens Hub, the Glenkens Gazette or GCAT.
We hope you find this useful and want to thank everyone who took part: the readers who set the questions, the candidates themselves, and the Scottish Beacon for organising the Citizens' Agenda.
For more information about the General Election 2024 and how to vote in Dumfries and Galloway see: https://dumgal.gov.uk/article/27163/UK-Parliamentary-General-Election-July-2024.
Laura Moodie - Scottish Green Party
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I’m Laura, I live in Borgue on 5 acres which I’m gradually restoring for nature with my husband, 4 children and 2 chickens. We’ve lived here for 11 years and in that time I’ve earned a reputation as a hard-working community organiser who delivers on her promises.
I’ve led successful local campaigns to improve bus services, end peat extraction and boost objections to the Glenkens pylon scheme. Most recently I’ve raised over £50,000 to refurbish our village hall. I’ve worked in a range of sectors, including broadcast media, hospitality and for charities and social enterprises.
My priorities are the priorities of Dumfries and Galloway - climate action, investing in vital services, and building a fairer, greener, more modern economy with opportunities for everyone to thrive.
My campaign is one of humility, hope, and determination. Humility - because I don't have all the answers and because real change can only happen by empowering communities and working together. Hope - because despite the daunting challenges, solutions are out there if we have the courage to embrace them. And determination - because the road ahead won't be easy, but giving up on creating a better world for our children simply isn't an option.
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1. How will you influence UK trade and industry policy to develop sustainable, climate positive jobs which target rural poverty and wealth inequality?
The Scottish Greens are proposing a £28bn Green New Deal including enhanced subsidies for home retrofitting and public investment in expanding native woodland and restoring peatlands. These investments all help diversify our rural economy.
Research has shown that jobs on rewilding projects - many funded via the Nature Restoration Fund established by the Greens - have increased by 400% since 2018. These are good, varied, jobs transforming rural communities while tackling the climate and nature crises.
We would raise more funds for public services by closing loopholes on business taxes and ensuring profits earned in the UK are taxed in the UK, introducing a wealth tax on the top 1% of earners and rolling out Scotland’s more progressive income tax across the whole UK, raising £11bn.
We would also tax wealth by adjusting Corporation Tax, with higher rates for larger corporations and an effective windfall tax on profits in the oil and gas sector; closing the loophole which provides relief for profits reinvested in drilling for new oil and gas.
Most of those claiming benefits are in work - making the current benefits system a subsidy for businesses to underpay workers. We would repeal the anti-trade union laws brought in by the Tory government and support greater collective bargaining in areas not traditionally well represented, including low-paid sectors where women form a large part of the workforce here such as the care sector.
The Scottish Greens will raise the minimum wage and ensure it is pegged against inflation to prevent erosion of its value over time. We would also scrap the current age bands for the minimum wage, ensuring all workers receive a living wage regardless of age.
Fundamentally, I don’t believe we will get our economy back on track until Scotland rejoins the EU, so I will also work to rejoin.
2. How will you ensure all households & businesses can access affordable super-fast broadband in the very near future?
The Scottish Green Party recognises that super-fast broadband is not just a luxury, but a necessity for businesses, education, and households. Broadband access should not be determined by one's geographic location or socio-economic status. We have long advocated for a social tariff on broadband to ensure affordability for all and believe that domestic broadband connections should be treated as an essential utility and delivered by a publicly-owned network and provider.
This issue straddles devolved and reserved competencies and the R100 and Gigabit Broadband Government schemes are well underway but it’s frustrating that, yet again, the trickier issues of rural areas are left till last while the low-hanging fruit of urban rollout is prioritised.
If elected, I would advocate for a Rural First approach to all infrastructure projects so that implementation is focussed on the areas most often left behind and solutions are tailored to fit rural circumstances from the outset.
3. How do you plan to impact transport policy to improve roads and access to public transport in rural areas?
The Scottish Greens have successfully fought for the renationalisation of Scotrail and the Caledonian Sleeper. Legislation and investment at a UK level would allow for the renationalisation of all public transport, including bus services and cross-border rail travel.
We have led the campaign locally to re-open a rail line between Dumfries and Stranraer. This is a far more transformative and lower cost infrastructure investment than the proposed dualling of the A75. It also wouldn’t come with a decade of road works! Recent railway projects typically cost £16-£19m per mile. Dualling an A road costs £46m per mile. Re-opened railways will get freight off the roads and reconnect communities as well as making the area more attractive to people to live in. The UK Government must enable devolved governments to borrow to invest in capital rail projects like this.
Last year I established Dumfries & Galloway’s Bus Users Group. We’ve successfully saved several buses from being cut including the now reinvigorated 101/102 service to Edinburgh and evening and weekend services. The Green policy of free bus travel for under-22s has helped to drive funds from central Government to local transport and made significant savings for family budgets like my own. Despite this, rural bus services are struggling while the private companies operating them make millions of pounds in profit. I’d also be keen to implement Cycling Dumfries’s Missing Links plan to address frustrating barriers to active travel.
28% of Scotland’s carbon emissions come from transport. The Scottish Greens would introduce road charging with a focus on reducing car usage by those living in areas with good existing public transport provision, while directing investment from funds raised to communities like our own with the lowest access to public transport and active travel options.
4. What plans will you and your party implement in order to support vibrant and dynamic rural communities, increase access to essential services, build community wealth and decrease inequality?
I'm standing in this election because I believe our community and our country are at a crossroads. We face enormous challenges - from the climate emergency, to crumbling public services, to an economic system that values profits over people. But I also see incredible opportunities to build the fair, green, and thriving Scotland we all want to see.
Our plans for a Green New Deal will create rural jobs across Scotland. Green MSP Ariane Burgess secured more amendments than any other MSP in the Agriculture & Rural Communities Bill. This included more support for small-scale farmers and market gardeners, support for agroforestry, organic farmers and rewilding projects. We also need to nurture sectors that aren’t necessarily perceived to be rural - culture and care, for example.
The Scottish Greens will create an economy that works for people and planet. The cost of living crisis we have endured in recent years has further entrenched inequality. 14 years of Tory austerity has not affected us evenly. Today, the five richest families in the UK are wealthier than the bottom 20% of the entire population.
The Scottish Greens would immediately end the arbitrary and cruel benefit cap that has taken an average of £51 a week from almost 28,000 Scots families since its introduction. We would also scrap the bedroom tax and abolish the abhorrent two child limit, which makes women and children pay the brunt of Westminster’s ideological obsession with austerity. And we would make sure everyone is guaranteed a minimum income - a social security net that ensures that everyone can have a good standard of living. We will also provide pensions support for the WASPI women.
5. What are you able to do to address the shortage of rural housing stock?
Housing is a reserved area but there are a number of changes at UK level that would enable this issue to be dealt with faster and more rapidly. In particular by permanently scrapping VAT on products and services which contribute to our journey to net zero, including installation of domestic renewable energy measures, retro-fitting homes and zero emissions building materials.
In Scotland, Green MSPs have secured funding for rural housing enablers like South of Scotland Communities Housing Trust, introduced rent controls for the first time and implemented registration and standards for short-term-lets. This has revealed that one area of this constituency has the highest proportion of short-term-lets in Scotland. While in Government we also enabled Councils to charge higher rates of Council tax on empty and second homes and secured a commitment that funds raised via the new Visitor Levy can be spent on housing and regeneration projects.
Currently, we’re pushing the Government to directly fund empty homes officers on Councils to bring empty properties back into use, which is quicker, cheaper and more carbon-efficient than building new and looking at building standards to enable the construction of small properties in challenging or remote locations to house key workers. We also need to enable people to downsize within their home communities to make more efficient use of existing housing stock.
6. How do you plan to address the climate crisis and combat environmental degradation in the UK?
At this election the Scottish Greens are asking voters to vote like our future depends on it because, for nature and the climate, it really does. We are rapidly running out of time to halt climate change and reverse the drastic biodiversity loss Scotland has seen.
While in Government, Scottish Greens secured record investment in nature and a new National Planning Framework that puts nature and climate at the heart of Scotland’s planning system. Work has also begun on the Natural Environment Bill which will enshrine a number of biodiversity commitments into law.
If elected to Westminster, I will work with other parties to push for a similar approach. We would also:
Establish a Four Nations Climate Response Group to maintain strategic oversight of the work across the UK to reach net zero targets, and develop and deliver a UK-wide climate plan.
Expand environmental taxation, such as a carbon land tax, aviation taxes and an incineration tax, to accelerate the transition and help pay for our Green New Deal programme.
Deliver a new programme of of investment in landscape scale restoration of our degraded natural environment, including expanding native woodlands and restoring peatlands
Introduce stronger powers for regulators to crack down on water companies, with unlimited fines and a ratcheting effect for repeat offenders.
It’s worth noting that often protecting nature and the economy are presented as being in conflict when, in reality, the opposite is true. Our approach to the environment - creating good, nature-friendly work in a variety of roles while actively improving biodiversity and nature could transform our rural areas. Doing nothing risks escalating costs due to the impact of climate change.
7. What will you do to ensure that the UK implements an immigration policy that properly supports the positive contribution that immigrants bring?
As one of the founding trustees of Dumfries & Galloway’s own refugee charity, Mool, and a migrant to Scotland myself, it’s no surprise that I believe our country is fundamentally enriched and enhanced by the people who choose to build their lives here. From doctors and teachers to artists and scientists, Scotland and the UK have been profoundly shaped by immigration throughout our history.
Yet over decades now, the UK Government has framed the issue as a fight for limited resources, disguising their failure to invest in public services as the result of ‘uncontrolled immigration’. They have driven forward an ideological opposition to immigration based on racism and xenophobia, whilst starving our public services and communities of both the funding and the workforce it desperately needs.
This has been particularly evident in Scotland, where significant workforce issues in education, the NHS, social care and other sectors have been exacerbated by our inability to recruit skilled workers from overseas. Our rural communities too have suffered, as hospitality and agriculture businesses have struggled to recruit the seasonal workers on which they have long relied.
The next UK Government must grant the Scottish Government the powers to set our own priorities for immigration, including developing schemes which can respond quickly and flexibly to our specific workforce needs.
The Scottish Greens will also press for an immediate removal of all income requirements on spousal visas, allowing families to live together and ensuring we are meeting the requirements under international law to uphold the right to family life.
8. Will you advocate for further devolution in Scotland and what is your stance on Scotland being an independent nation?
The Scottish Green Party has supported independence since it was founded in 1990 and we continue to believe that the people of Scotland are best placed to make decisions about how our country is run. It is part of our core Green principle of subsidiarity - we believe power should always be exercised at the lowest possible level and would like to see much greater internal devolution of powers to local and community councils in an independent Scotland.
The power for Scotland to hold constitutional referendums should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so that a second referendum on Scottish Independence can be held at a time chosen by the people of Scotland and their democratically elected parliament. We recognise, however, that more work needs to be done to persuade the people of Scotland of the benefits of independence and how it can help Scotland become a fairer, greener, thriving country which looks after people and planet.
Whilst campaigning for independence and greater powers for the Scottish Parliament, we must not lose sight of the fact that increasingly our existing powers are under threat by a UK Government which has shown utter contempt for the devolved settlement. We would remove Section 35 from the Scotland Act and repeal the post-Brexit Internal Market Act.
9. How will you work in the UK parliament, and with your MSP colleagues on issues, such as funding for the NHS and education, which while budget responsibility is devolved, depend on funding from the UK government?
I’ve already outlined key policies to raise more funds using the full fiscal powers Westminster benefits from, in particular a progressive annual wealth tax on the top 1% of households in the UK, those with £3.4m and above. A wealth tax on this scale would raise at least £75bn for our public services.
It’s been concerning to see how little engagement there is between all the devolved nations. There is much we can learn from each other on approaches to different issues - whether that’s Scotland learning from Wales when implementing the roll out of our own 20mph speed limits, or sharing what we have learned from delivering the Scottish Child Payment to lift 100,000 children out of poverty.
The Scottish Greens have shown that we can work with other parties, most notably during our time in Government, but also through budget negotiations and private members bills. One of the Scottish Green achievements I am proudest of is the passing of Gillian Mackay’s Safe Access Zones Bill. This Private Member’s Bill dealt with a sensitive area - reproductive healthcare - but through engagement, care and careful drafting, Gillian managed to get the legislation passed with very few amendments and with overwhelming cross-party support. Only one MSP voted against the Bill at any Stage.
Greens prefer negotiation, compromise and consensus building - and we’re good at it!
David P Griffiths - Scottish Heritage Party
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1. How will you influence UK trade and industry policy to develop sustainable, climate positive jobs which target rural poverty and wealth inequality?
Answer: First, we must agree on what has gone wrong!
i) A disastrous so called “vaccine” rollout with its consequent excess deaths and injuries followed by a needless lockdown affecting the physical and mental health of the country, especially those with special needs.
ii) A continuous obsession about apparent climate change, this coming in cycles rather than being primarily man-made. The false belief that CO2 is bad is also a major problem hence our simple to understand explanation on CO2 being a good gas for without it we would die. https://www.scottishheritageparty.org/co2-a-good-gas
Second, the way forward!
i) Teach our pupils and students how to think rather than what to think! Philosophers of science all know that over the centuries there have been many different scientific opinions, and that is all they are, so to improve business we need people of the wide rather than narrow perspective of their only being one science.
ii) Rural areas are commonly dependent on crop growing for which CO2 is essential and agriculture all of which we need to de-regulate away from the green ideology recognizing with farmers we don’t eat, so let’s value them!
2. How will you ensure all households & businesses can access affordable super-fast broadband in the very near future?
Answer: Affordability comes by electing sensible governments who waste not the taxpayer’s purse on dangerous “vaccines” and needless lockdowns. From the outset the Heritage Party in UK opposed all of this unlike the parties of our opponents in Dumfries and Galloway.
By scraping ridiculous net zero targets and the trillions globally this will cost, we free up resources for sensible expansion.
3. How do you plan to impact transport policy to improve roads and access to public transport in rural areas?
Answer: Roads have started to collapse with in our view the impact of electric vehicles of high radiation levels and fire risks, heavy infrastructure causing potholes and the extreme humanitarian crisis of children going down mines in DR Congo (where I have worked) to get lithium. Our Electric Vehicle scrappage scheme will enforce manufacturers to replace them with environmentally friendly fossil fuel cars and address the severe financial losses of electric vehicle purchasers.
Resources then can be freed up to build the D Road (Dual Carriageway) from Gretna to Cairnryan and onto Glasgow with well maintained roads to the towns and rural areas. In addition, we need to restore the railway line to the Northern Ireland ferries and heritage lines coming off this to areas of outstanding natural beauty.
4. What plans will you and your party implement in order to support vibrant and dynamic rural communities, increase access to essential services, build community wealth and decrease inequality?
Answer: In times past, rural villages had at its very heart the local Kirk, Bank Manager, Doctor, Nursing and Midwifery services, Post Office and so forth. All this stability is rapidly being lost from our rural areas and it is our determination to restore normality but how?
i) Recognize the problems to overcome returning the nation to coming under God rather than man-thought ideologies, for without this the heart of our nation has gone.
ii) De-centralize and empower community councils linked to town councils with a shift from globalized Holyrood to giving power back to local communities.
iii) Recognizing that everyday banking has moved to on-line but what about business development and business managers being accessible face to face with residents?
iv) Addressing the GP crisis by emphasizing the benefits of living in our beautiful area, showing that we are a welcoming people and in addition to this encourage the training of our own people into living saving positions.
5. What are you able to do to address the shortage of rural housing stock?
Answer: By stabilizing the economy, we bring the conditions for affordable housing that local communities support, so unelected planning departments of councils that no nothing of local conditions be made to note what local councils have to say.
6. How do you plan to address the climate crisis and combat environmental degradation in the UK?
Answer: There is no climate crisis, indeed increased CO2 is good for crop growing, changes in climate over the years has always occurred, sun activity obviously relating to this.
We need to address the fearmongering of those intent to bring in “letter of the law” regulation contrary to the nation’s Constitution.
7. What will you do to ensure that the UK implements an immigration policy that properly supports the positive contribution that immigrants bring?
Answer: Stop illegal immigration and embrace controlled immigration in the context of bringing in those who can meet the gaps in our workforce.
8. Will you advocate for further devolution in Scotland and what is your stance on Scotland being an independent nation?
Answer: First, lets have a nationalist Parliament as part of the UK that embraces our culture and heritage rather than that of globalism. We stand for a Nationalist Scotland in a Nationalist UK and would withdraw from any global body including the UN that would look to inflict us with laws from un-elected officials from the outside.
A new Holyrood with powers decentralized back to County Councils as it was before 1973, taking away the regional councils which in our view are more intent on applying regulation rather than working with local communities.
9. How will you work in the UK parliament, and with your MSP colleagues on issues, such as funding for the NHS and education, which while budget responsibility is devolved, depend on funding from the UK government?
Answer: I see a Scotland leading the UK rather than being dependent on English money all the time. This will involve development of our vast oil and gas fields in the North Sea, restoring friendly relations throughout the world and increasing trade, de-regulating business, giving cheap energy all this being suppressed by the green lobby, and so under a Scottish Heritage Party Government freedom, nation, and family will again be restored to what is rapidly becoming a totalitarian state under the establishment parties.
Iain McDonald - Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Many in the Glenkens will have seen me out and about over the years appreciating all the area has to offer.
I offer you a candidate with the most extensive experience of living in this area and running a rural business. I managed the largest legal practice in Galloway and my father before me managed a renowned local food business. I have the experience of what it takes to be successful. If elected I would be joining a team of Liberal Democrat MPs experienced in rural affairs. Three of the four Scottish Liberal Democrats in the last Parliament represented rural constituencies: Fife, Caithness and Shetland and Orkney. People have seen and value the service they get with a Liberal Democrat MP where they have one - a strong local champion who fights for a fair deal for their community.
Unfortunately I am not in a position to reply in detail in the short time available but I would be applying my party’s principals in addressing the issues raised.
For a community to grow our local businesses and improve job opportunities and wages, we need to support and invest in them. This includes using local businesses whenever possible, as the Scottish Liberal Democrats have done in this campaign. Our election leaflet (unlike the Conservative and Labour ones) was designed and printed in this constituency.
Liberal Democrats support private enterprise as the principal engine of growth and prosperity. This requires the creation of a stable business environment and investment in skills, infrastructure, research and innovation. Successful private business will provide better wages and conditions but the region also needs to attract professionals, such as doctors and lawyers. The region has much to offer in life style but professionals need to see a thriving community offering employment opportunities for the whole family.
We also need to ensure we have proper healthcare and childcare facilities. While this all costs money we would be investing in people who will have earnings to spend more in our local economy and encourage growth.
Local businesses and farmers have been adversely affected by Brexit and the Tories trade deals which have ignored the needs of rural business. Liberal Democrats would aim to bring down trade barriers and build stronger future relationships with our closest trading partners.
The Tory campaign has all been about stopping Scottish independence with little about their aims for the future or the advancement of the economy of the constituency. This is one of the reasons, like the SNP, they are failing in the polls. While, unlike the Conservatives and Labour, the Liberal Democrats can lower the profile of the SNP by becoming at least the third largest party at Westminster!
If the polls are to be believed, both the Tory and SNP vote are predicted to collapse, with consequent infighting. We may be heading for a vast Labour majority. Liberal Democrats offer a lifelong local MP born, bred, working and living in the region who will focus on our local needs and joining a Liberal Democrat team with a lot of rural expertise holding the Westminster Labour majority government to account.
Charles Anthony Keal - Reform UK
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1. How will you influence UK trade and industry policy to develop sustainable, climate positive jobs which target rural poverty and wealth inequality?
Reform UK would slash red tape to boost industry and exports. We only get better off by growing the economy. We would abolish IR35 rules to support small traders. We’d lift the VAT threshold to £150,000 to free small firms from red tape. We’d support Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) by abolishing business rates on the high street and replacing it with a 4% online delivery tax for large companies. We’d take 1.2 million SMEs out of Corporation Tax by raising the threshold at which it is paid to £100k.
2. How will you ensure all households & businesses can access affordable super-fast broadband in the very near future?
Ultrafast broadband is becoming essential in the modern world. Openreach lists 22 places in the constituency that gained access to full fibre last year, including Crossmichael, Laurieston and Gatehouse. Areas in the Glenkens need this too, and the programme needs to continue apace. Both mobile and internet connectivity have improved vastly since I moved to Galloway in 2013. Whilst I appreciate the frustration felt by those not yet upgraded, I think we are pushing at an open door on this question, as everyone has agreed the need to roll out these necessary improvements.
3. How do you plan to impact transport policy to improve roads and access to public transport in rural areas?
Buses are a lifeline for rural communities, as is Galloway Community Transport based in New Galloway. Compared to Cumbria, say, we are blessed with a good network of bus services, and it is vital that funding for these is maintained. Roads have deteriorated badly over the past 10 years. It costs far more to build and maintain roads on UK than in most of Europe. We spend years planning, and waste millions on consultants and written reports. The latest £8m spending on the A75 is “to support the Scottish Government’s business case…” – another report, but no actual road improvements. Reform UK would slash bureaucracy, abolish quangos, and have clear lines of accountability in government decision-making.
4. What plans will you and your party implement in order to support vibrant and dynamic rural communities, increase access to essential services, build community wealth and decrease inequality?
Much of what I have written above applies to this question too. Good broadband, good transport links, affordable housing, and a vibrant economy are the keys. There is also the need to get more people into work, and to allow those on Universal Credit to do more hours without jeopardising their benefits. The system as currently constituted makes it very difficult for people whose income fluctuates – if they earn too much one week they can lose their entitlement to UC and have to reapply. People must be supported if they want to try to take on extra hours.
5. What are you able to do to address the shortage of rural housing stock?
The planning system needs to be overhauled. There are just too many hurdles to jump before a digger turns the first sod. As a result small builders are shut out, and big companies control new building. They can then ration and drip feed housing onto the market to keep prices high. We will cut bureaucracy, and grant planning permission with all infrastructure and utilities arrangements in place at the same time.
6. How do you plan to address the climate crisis and combat environmental degradation in the UK?
There is no doubt that the climate is changing. We can work to halt the warming of our planet, and we must also adapt to climate change. The UK, however, produces less than 2% of global emissions. Reform UK believes that by setting unrealistic climate targets we are losing jobs, impoverishing ourselves, and exporting our emissions by buying from countries with lower environmental standards. We need to use our own oil and gas (and the limited amount of coal we need eg from a new mine in West Cumbria) during the transition. 70% of our energy needs come from fossil fuels at present and we can’t just shut them down. We need to invest in new technology, which is developing all the time – hydrogen is potentially life-changing. Green jobs, yes! But let’s not put all our eggs in one basket when innovation is so rapid. Focusing primarily on wind turbines and heat pumps is like investing everything in VHS tapes oblivious of the fact that DVDs and streaming are coming along.
Environmental degradation is serious. Water companies must clean up our rivers and seas. Habitats must be restored. Rewilding must take place and nature corridors be established, whilst we also use our productive land for farming.
7. What will you do to ensure that the UK implements an immigration policy that properly supports the positive contribution that immigrants bring?
Immigration can be a good thing. Many immigrants make a positive contribution to society, and everyone must be treated with dignity and respect. Also, many sectors of our economy, not least our farming and hospitality sectors, need workers. But the UK as a whole cannot cope with the numbers of people coming in; the population has risen by 8.5 million in the past 25 years with consequential effects on housing and on service provision. Therefore Reform UK has a zero net immigration policy – one out, one in. Illegal immigrants should be returned to the safe country that they came from. Asylum seekers should be processed speedily; it is a scandal that people are held in barges or hotels, in some cases for over a year, not permitted to work, while awaiting Home Office decisions. Most of them are only too willing to work and want to get on with building a life in this country if their applications are successful. I would like to make all civil servants in the relevant departments process 5 asylum applications each day before they did any other work. The backlog would soon be cleared when the high heid yins realised that the process had to be streamlined.
8. Will you advocate for further devolution in Scotland and what is your stance on Scotland being an independent nation?
I believe that we are best served by Scotland’s remaining in the United Kingdom; we are better together. However, Reform UK’s policy is to decentralise power and get decisions taken more locally. In particular this would mean that more budgetary decisions should made by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
9. How will you work in the UK parliament, and with your MSP colleagues on issues, such as funding for the NHS and education, which while budget responsibility is devolved, depend on funding from the UK government?
We all want well-funded health and education systems. The new government will, in fact, have limited financial room for manoeuvre as in 2024 we have a higher tax burden than we’ve had for 50 years. Future increases will have to come from economic growth. But we already have high spending on health and education, and the problem is that the increased cash has not improved outcomes. The proportion of GDP spent on health has more than doubled since 1990, but the NHS is not working so well. Reform UK has policies to shift the way the NHS is managed so that money is used more effectively. If you can’t have an operation within 9 weeks, or if you can’t see a consultant in 3 weeks, you’ll get a voucher to have treatment where you want. Recruitment and retention will be encouraged by taking all nurses, GPs , frontline workers and and care staff out of basic rate income tax for 2 years. We will streamline the admin and get the money to work better.
James Wallace - Labour Party
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I was born here and lived here most of my life. I trained as a lawyer before becoming a chartered financial planner. Our region has been completely left behind and forgotten by Westminster and Holyrood and we need a change. There is not much influence at a national level an individual MP can have (obviously a Labour MP at the heart of a Labour government will have more).
However, what your MP can do is raider the profile of the region and draw attention to the significant issues we have here in Dumfries and Galloway. We get left behind on broadband (with New Galloway and Dalry suffering for a long time).
Our roads are caught in a political football between the SNP and Tory Government. The SNP will never fund the A75 connecting Northern Ireland to England and the Tories say it should come from Scotland's road budget. Well it should come from both and we want our fair share which we are not getting.
I will stand up for our region whether on the NHS, on pot holes, on buses (even Dumfries don't run buses after 8pm to most of the community), on tackling the cost of living, on communities being forgotten. These issues may be devolved or at a council level but the matter. I will be an MP who cares and can amplify our voice as the forgotten region to those that can make the decisions. Labour had a great MP for the region in Russell Brown who was the longest serving MP in Dumfries and Galloway. It's time our region had a change again ending the division and decline and focussing on local priorities.
I'm sorry I can't respond in detail to each question myself and most national questions you have raised will see the answer in our manifesto.
Response received after the deadline.
John Cooper - Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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I am a proud product of rural Scotland, having grown up and been educated in Stranraer.
That background has shaped my thinking and it is my beliefs that the Scottish Conservatives best understand the needs and traditions of Scotland’s beautiful countryside areas and the redoubtable people who make their homes there.
We grasp that there are challenges, and that rural dwellers need support - not what appears at times like punishment and criticism from other parties for daring to live outwith the urban central belt.
With long experience of working for the UK Government, I am clear that - despite what other candidates might claim - MPs have little direct influence over spending in many areas in Scottish life, including the NHS and transport, as funding is decided by Holyrood.
The Scottish Conservatives believe in devolution, and work closely between our two parliaments in Edinburgh and Westminster. I would continue in that vein of mutual cooperation.
But let me be clear. Independence is not widely supported by the public, and those who constantly agitate for separation are a distraction from the hard work of dealing with real-world issues.
Holyrood does not fully exercise the powers it currently has and, if elected as an MP, I will be working with MSP colleagues to end the opacity around where a record £41bn of funding for the Scottish Government actually goes.
With holes in our teeth and holes in our roads, we see precious little of that money in Dumfries & Galloway.
I want rural Scotland to thrive and, if elected on 4th July, will work closely with you in gorgeous Glenkens to make it happen.
