Labour’s choice next time will be a local candidate, JoshFenton-Glynn. Josh grew up in the Calder Valley, and is a former student of Calder High.

When the election gets under way, we’ll share with you Labour’s policies, which are about taking steps to make our society a fairer and more caring one.

We asked Josh to say in his own words what’s top of his personal agenda.

1. “Climate change and flooding (a symptom of climate change). We really do only have one planet, and we have to do the best we can to protect it. My daughter is fifteen months, and her generation has the right to ask this of us.”
2. “A strong local economy. We need proper regional infrastructure development in Calderdale and in Yorkshire generally. There’s a real opportunity to create more ‘green’ jobs (linked for example to energy generation) and jobs in high-technology manufacturing.
3. “The NHS. We need a society that’s prepared to look after people. The NHS has directly helped members of my family overcome cancer. Recent years have seen creeping privatisation and the NHS has been starved of money.”
4. “Transport in the North. It’s ridiculous, I’m 35 now and some of the trains that have been trundling up and down the Calder Valley line were built when I was a baby. We’ve got to have long-term planning for Northern railways. And we’ve got to stop profits from the railways being syphoned off to private shareholders.
5. “Decent work. People’s sense of dignity at work is being undermined. We have to turn our back on increasingly casual, precarious work, and ensure everyone’s work is acknowledged and respected.