General Election 2019: Sleaford and North Hykeham candidates' profiles
Voters across the area are set to go to the polls tomorrow (Thursday) to elect the MPs who will represent them for the next five years.
We invited the candidates standing in each of our constituencies to submit a profile outlining why you should cast your vote in their direction. They are listed alphabetically by surname.
Here's what the candidates for the Sleaford and North Hykeham constituency had to say:
Caroline Coram, Independent
Caroline Coram is 48 years old, is a mother and a local businesswoman.
She has a degree in Italian studies, a Masters in design management and speaks both Italian and Dutch.
Caroline has worked in the luxury fashion industry and is a specialist in marketing across a range of industries, including venture capital.
She has much-needed commercial insight and an ability to see the local and national picture.
Caroline now runs her own small business and helps on local community projects. She has a wide network of business contacts, friends and family throughout the constituency.
Her political interest and involvement has been growing over the last 10 years. She has participated in the Grantham Committee, debating business, planning and sustainability issues for the area.
Caroline also stood for the Green Party as a councillor in Grantham on similar local issues in 2015.
Caroline is a firm believer in having a just and balanced political system, where no part of the nation goes untended.
She has a deep love for this part of Lincolnshire, having grown up here as a child and returned here to raise her family.
She wants to see it prosper for everyone.
Caroline believes in democracy and would use that belief to be a voice for the people in Sleaford and North Hykeham, and not a voice for a party.
Oliver Craven, Liberal Democrat
This election will be a choice between a candidate who will fight for our area and one who will do whatever Boris Johnson says.
I grew up in Long Bennington, a village in the constituency, and I know the problems our communities face from experience.
I’ve struggled to get around on our collapsing public transport network, which is badly run by the Conservative county council.
Anyone who uses the buses knows that it’s often hit or miss whether they arrive at all, let alone on time.
The Liberal Democrats have promised that once Brexit is stopped, we will use the Remain Dividend to invest in areas like ours to improve public transport and create jobs.
I’ve also used our local NHS, including Grantham A&E, which is having to close due to national Conservative underfunding.
Only the Liberal Democrats have a clear funded plan to rescue our NHS by putting a penny in the pound on income tax to inject a much-needed £6 billion a year.
The NHS will also suffer further if we don’t stop Brexit, with increased staff shortages due to doctors and nurses leaving the country and the Government’s failure to invest in future students.
Our Conservative MP has repeatedly failed to stand up for our area and we are seeing little progress on the state of our vital public services.
It is time for a change. It is time to fix this mess.
I’m standing to be a voice for our community and I hope you’ll support me.
Linda Edwards-Shea, Labour Party
I’m Linda Edwards-Shea, the Labour Party parliamentary candidate for Sleaford and North Hykeham.
I grew up in an RAF family and as a child I lived at RAF Cranwell then moved to Sleaford. I attended the girls’ high school there and went on to study physics at Coventry University and Imperial College.
I married my husband Paul in St Denys’ Church in Sleaford, where we now live.
I worked as a physicist and engineer for British Aerospace, GEC, and London South Bank University. I’m now a self-employed actor.
Our constituency is the fourth largest in voter numbers with more than 93,000, so why don’t we have a general hospital, motorway, FE college or university campus? I believe it’s because our votes have been taken for granted for decades. We need real change here in Sleaford and North Hykeham.
If elected I will work to:
* Tackle climate change. Labour’s green industrial revolution will bring thousands of good jobs to Lincolnshire by investing in wave, wind and solar power and by retrofitting homes to make them energy efficient. Our constituency will attract the new entrepreneurs and businesses that will be needed;
* Rebuild public services including the NHS, social care, youth services and social housing. Labour will bring all NHS services including mental-health care back into public ownership;
* Compensate 1950s-born women, most of whom have lost £48,000 from their state pensions. In Lincolnshire there are over 50,000 ‘WASPI’ women representing a loss of £2billion from our local economy;
* Reunite our country. We will offer a choice between a good Brexit deal that protects jobs, workers’s rights and the environment, and ‘Remain’.
Caroline Johnson, Conservative Party
I have been honoured to represent Sleaford and North Hykeham for the last three years. I am proud of what I have achieved so far, and I would love to continue to represent you in Westminster.
I am very much rooted in our community; I have lived locally for 18 years and currently live near Ancaster with my husband, a farmer, and our three children.
The last three years of politics have been dominated by Brexit. Like the majority of local people, I voted to leave the EU in 2016. I have voted consistently in Parliament to deliver Brexit, but we did not have a majority government, and the opposition sadly voted to block Brexit.
I believe Brexit offers us great opportunities, I believe in democracy, and I am backing our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to deliver Brexit.
As a children’s doctor I care deeply about the NHS and our local healthcare services. I campaigned for improvements to ambulance services, securing 67 new ambulances for EMAS. Lincolnshire’s new medical school has now opened; Boston is getting a new A&E; and Grantham has new diagnostic equipment.
I will keep fighting to ensure Grantham’s A&E is reopened once enough staff can be recruited.
A Conservative government will support our police and Armed Forces. We are recruiting 20,000 new police officers, and I will ensure Lincolnshire receives its fair share.
We are lucky to have fantastic schools in Lincolnshire, and each one will benefit from Conservative investment of £14 billion in education.
I am proud to have secured funding to complete the final section of Lincoln’s bypass, as well as a safety review of the A1.
A Conservative government will also improve the A1/A46/A17 junction near Newark, plus an extra £2 billion for pothole repairs.
Communication is especially important in rural areas. We will deliver full fibre broadband to all homes by 2025 and create a shared rural mobile network to eliminate not-spots.
I am proud we’ve committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, have reduced single use plastics, introduced a world leading Environment Bill, strengthened animal welfare legislation, and tackled flytipping.
Marianne Overton MBE, Lincolnshire Independent
I am a trusted Lincolnshire Independent, working for you here and I work nationally, speaking with ministers to successfully bring money to Lincolnshire.
Lincolnshire is special. That’s why we need a Lincolnshire Independent MP. One you know will listen carefully to you and serve your interests.
Independents are sweeping the country for good reason. We get on with the job.
Here in Sleaford and North Hykeham, Lincolnshire Independents work well together and do a great job supporting our communities on the ground. Supporting local businesses and communities, road safety, tackling flooding, buses, broadband, health and care. We got agreement to tackle climate change, with positive actions in progress. We can do more.
The Conservatives have been bad for Lincolnshire. We have not been represented well.
We need an MP who listens and acts for us. A Lincolnshire Independent MP.
Many thousands of dwellings have been forced on us by the last government without enough support for local jobs, services and facilities – so who is going without? An ambulance, a hospital bed, a school place?
We Lincolnshire Independents fight for a better NHS, safer roads, affordable homes and freedom from crime. Lincolnshire has been seriously short-changed and essential services left struggling, while the Conservative Brexit mess continues.
We surely cannot vote for empty promises and more of the same.
Parliament is stuck. It’s time for new faces we trust to take hold of Britain’s big challenges and work together to get them sorted.
Let’s have homes we can afford, a decent job and a clean, green and safe environment for all.
Please vote for me to get the best for you here in Sleaford and North Hykeham.
Simon Tooke, Green Party
Hello, I’m Simon Tooke and I’m the parliamentary candidate for the Sleaford and North Hykeham constituency.
I’m 69, married with children and grandchildren, and I’ve lived in Lincoln for 13 years. I’m retired now, but I have been a scientist, a fireman, a company director and an IT consultant, and I’ve also simply provided labour when it was necessary.
Being Green has come a long way since I joined the party in 1979 and as the need for action has become ever more urgent. Green issues have moved to the forefront of public debate, backed up by research and scientific consensus. We must put an end to the destruction of the environment, both locally and globally.
If elected, I would challenge the growth economics which has led to this environmental emergency. We must rethink our economic system and introduce sustainable economics. We must stop subsidising fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy to create a greener, cleaner economy.
Social inequality is growing, homelessness and foodbank referrals are rising, the NHS is under threat and schools are underfunded. I would work to create a more equal society, and to introduce measures which will ensure that global corporations pay fair taxes on profits made in this country.
Small and medium businesses make a major contribution to our economy – nearly one in six of us are now self-employed – and I would encourage small business start-ups by introducing the new planning category of artisan housing (that is, housing with integral office/workshop space).
We see daily the failure of our democracy to properly represent the people, and we are subjected to untruths and propaganda from all sides. We must rebuild confidence in our political system, and this can only be done from the bottom up.
These are all issues that affect us locally in Lincolnshire, as well as nationally and internationally.
As individuals we may feel unable to do much about global issues but when we all act together, starting at home, we make an impact. And that goes for everyone, everywhere.
The election has been called – the Green Party is ready.
