Thank you for electing me as your Member of Parliament for Sherwood Forest.
Please bear with me whilst I get my office and staff team set up. I am working my way through emails, messages and surgery meeting requests. Thank you.
About me
"My name is Michelle Welsh, and I am your Labour Member of Parliament for Sherwood Forest.
Having started my working life in elderly care, becoming the first in my family to go to university, working with families here setting up Sure Start services, I feel passionate about making life better for everyone in Sherwood Forest. I am a mother who is standing to make change happen.
We cannot afford to allow our country to have 5 more years of this utter chaos. I know what it takes to be a strong community voice and to stand up for issues that are affecting people.
We have had 14 years of Conservative chaos; 14 years with a Tory MP who has supported every Tory leader, every Tory budget, every Tory decision. He has supported austerity, crippling cost of living rises, vicious cuts to our public services – all decisions that have hit our communities hard. It is those decisions that lead me to ask for your support as we make a fresh start for Sherwood Forest."
Having started my working life in elderly care, becoming the first in my family to go to university, working with families here setting up Sure Start services, I feel passionate about making life better for everyone in Sherwood Forest. I am a mother who is standing to make change happen.
We cannot afford to allow our country to have 5 more years of this utter chaos. I know what it takes to be a strong community voice and to stand up for issues that are affecting people.
We have had 14 years of Conservative chaos; 14 years with a Tory MP who has supported every Tory leader, every Tory budget, every Tory decision. He has supported austerity, crippling cost of living rises, vicious cuts to our public services – all decisions that have hit our communities hard. It is those decisions that lead me to ask for your support as we make a fresh start for Sherwood Forest."
MY PRIORITIES FOR SHERWOOD FOREST:
1. Our Public Services - People Not Profit
As a mother to a 3-year-old and a daughter of a father with a life limiting illness I rely on the same public services as you. The Conservatives seem to think that investment in our public services is a luxury, well I say it is vital.
2. Life Chances for All
Where you are born should not determine your future or determine how long you live. I have worked frontline in early years and education, and I have seen firsthand the dismantling of our education system. I want every child in Sherwood to be able to achieve their dreams and reach their full potential – irrespective of their background and where they live.
3. Fairer Funding for Sherwood
Sherwood has endured year on year cuts since 2010 – resulting in cuts to services and the removal of support affecting real lives and real communities. I have not and will not sit back and let that continue.
4. Tackling Child Poverty – Ending Child Hunger
Any child living in poverty in Sherwood is one too many. We all have a moral duty as Labour people to end child poverty and it will be a top priority for me as your local Labour MP.
5. A Greener Future - Protecting Our Precious Planet
Tackling the climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation. I am proud to have played a lead role in protecting and securing the future of Sherwood Forest and Rufford Country Park. I will be a green ambassador for Sherwood and a champion for our rural communities and the challenges they face.
6. Care and Compassion in our politics
We must turn the page on Thatcher’s mantra that there is no such thing as ‘society’. The Tory government’s ‘hostile environment’, Windrush scandal and their callous uncaring anti -refugee Rwanda policy are a stain on our country’s proud humanitarianism. I am proud of the work I have done to work on individual cases to stop young women being deported back to war torn countries.
7. An NHS Fit for The Future
Our National Health Service is one of Labour’s biggest achievements, but we know that the Tories are determined to make health care a guarantee for the wealthy while locking out the poor and vulnerable. Hospital waiting lists are at a record high, routine operations delayed and cancelled, a struggle to get GP appointments and a national shortage of dentists. As you Member of Parliament I will not only work locally to improve health services, I will take Sherwood’s need for effective and accessible health services for all right to the heart of parliament, my voice will sound loudly as I stand for the health and wellbeing of everyone living here.
8. Standing Up For Worker’s Rights and Trade Unions
I strongly oppose Tory attacks on the right to take industrial action and the weakening of workplace rights. We should not have to look back on the days of decent pensions and stronger rights as a bygone era – it can be our future too, if we organise and fight for all workers. I will fight for justice on Miner’s pensions. I am a committed trade unionist and have been a workplace representative and I am currently an accompanying representative for a trade union.
9. Equality for all
As a working-class woman with a hidden disability, I have faced discrimination and I know the importance of solidarity and standing together to fight for equality. I will continue to work on improving representation of women, BAME, LGBTQ+ people in the Labour party and in elected office and to work with the group’s that are giving people a voice.
10. Socialism Across Borders
I believe that working across borders is needed to preserve peace, create prosperity, level up worker’s rights, tackle climate change and tax avoidance. That is why I will always proudly stand up for internationalism. We are part of a family, a worldwide movement striving for social justice, climate justice, peace and equality.