Eight candidates are standing for election to Parliament to represent the Brighton Pavilion constituency on Thursday 4 July 2024.
The eight candidates are Steve AI (Independent), Siân Berry (Green), Carl Buckfield (SDP), Tom Gray (Labour), Mark Mulvihill (Reform UK), Ashley Ridley (Liberal Democrat), Citizen Skwith (Official Monster Raving Loony) and Sarah Webster (Conservative).
Each candidate answered questions submitted by voters. Here are the answers from the Labour candidate Tom Gray, a musician, chair of the Ivors Academy and director of UK Music, who tweets @MrTomGray and posts on Instagram as @tg4pavilion. His Facebook page is Tom Gray for Brighton Pavilion.
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Why do you want to be an MP and how are you qualified for the role?
I’ve lived in our city for 25 years where I’ve grown my family and built my life. I love this city deeply but I’ve seen it suffer from neglect and mismanagement.
I’ve dedicated years to fighting for the creative industries and have a proven track record of delivering for my community. As a result, I am established in Westminster.
When Caroline Lucas stood down, friends from both inside and outside politics encouraged me to stand.
Seeing the world through my 16-year-old son’s eyes, I felt compelled to step up in this generationally important election to deliver the change he, and all of us, need.
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If elected, how would you deal with performance and pricing problems in privatised utilities such as the water companies, railways, energy companies and the Royal Mail?
The cost of living is crippling our city, and public services desperately need improvement.
Labour will establish GB Energy, a publicly owned clean power company to reduce bills, funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
We will fully nationalise the train network within five years, lowering fares as part of a major overhaul.
For water companies, we will criminalise offending water bosses and prohibit their bonuses. The Royal Mail, a British institution, needs a sustainable business model that benefits both workers and customers.
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What would you do to help people who are struggling to rent or buy a home? Should second homes or Airbnb-style holiday lets be banned?
We’ve got to fix our housing crisis. We’ll protect renters: ban “no fault” evictions, enable renters to challenge unreasonable rent increases and hold landlords to high standards to protect the welfare of their tenants.
We’ll build 1.5 million new homes – with first dibs for first-time buyers and a mortgage scheme so they won’t need a huge deposit to get started.
Airbnbs have significantly reduced housing availability in Brighton, driving up rents and making it difficult to find affordable housing.
I have always advocated for a licensing scheme and commend our Labour council’s work to license landlords.
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What steps would you take to improve hospital performance, community care and access to GPs for patients in Brighton and Hove?
We need to ensure the NHS can serve us now and in the future.
Labour will cut NHS waiting times by creating 40,000 more appointments a week and restoring the 18-week referral to treatment standard.
We will add 8,500 new mental health staff and launch Young Futures hubs for open access mental health services for children and young people.
Additionally, we aim to build consensus for a National Care Service. We must focus of prevention to stop every part of the system being overwhelmed, as it is now.
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Events in Israel and Gaza have affected many members of the community here. What can people in your constituency expect you to say and do as an MP?
Recent events have been harrowing and extremely difficult to bear witness to. I have long backed an immediate ceasefire.
The International Criminal Court guidelines must be followed. The offensive must stop.
It’s imperative that the UN Security Council-endorsed ceasefire resolution is agreed and implemented immediately.
Once it has, leaders must restart the peace process. That means sovereignty and security for Palestine and Israel in a two-state solution.
Labour will recognise Palestine. We must commit time, energy and resource to finding lasting, sustainable peace in the region. This cannot go on.
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Do you support the Royal Mail plans for Patcham Court Farm despite the threat posed to the aquifer there that provides much of the drinking water for Brighton and Hove?
I have never expressed support for the Patcham Court Farm development.
Live planning applications are guided by process and regulation, not by politics.
I am concerned about potential noise, pollution and flooding risks.
Southern Water must be held to account for the area’s unfit foul sewers.
Drinking water is treated and cleared before it is supplied to our taps.
Significant construction on the aquifer, like the A27 and much of Patcham’s housing, has never damaged our water supply so I’m concerned our community is being made to feel anxious and fearful unnecessarily.
If elected on Thursday 4 July I will do everything in my power to protect Patcham residents.
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Polling stations are due to be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 4 July. Photo ID is required for those voting in person.
‘ I felt compelled to step up in this generationally important election to deliver the change he, and all of us, need’
…… but couldn’t be bothered to attend the three hustings last week? Still all the other candidates clubbed together to have a cardboard cut out of you in situ as they didn’t know what you looked like!
Councillor, can you remind me what the rules are about making public statements that could be interpreted as politically biased during a pre-election period?
You do realise that only applies to candidates standing for election, Benjy boy?
The gloves are off for everyone else.
Incorrect.
Opportunism: noun
the taking of opportunities as and when they arise, regardless of planning or principle.
“he was accused of political opportunism”
The same as other idenikit Keir clones, who believe that “tougher regulation” will solve the water industry scandal and are in cloud cuckoo land – Southern Water were fined more than £90 million in court a few years ago and it’s been proved in court they covered things up – that hasn’t stopped them polluting the sea though.
Did anyone see his ridiculous tweet and video, where he simply said “I will clean the sea” before blaming Caroline Lucas (rather than Southern Water or the Tory Government) for sewage in the sea. If he really thinks that, does he think Peter Kyle is responsible for sewage spills off the Hove seafront, and does he think Lloyd was responsible for the same off Kemptown. Either he doesn’t understand where the faults lie with the water company crisis, or worse, he’s deliberately using trumpian lines to make a point baked of half truths and misinformation for political gain.
We need water companies to be re-nationised, which this man won’t do. He also doesn’t seem to know that Southern Water have been fined for drinking water offences, it worries me that when it comes down to it, he seems to trust them, and thinks it’s just a case of more regulation that’s needed, when they’ve already been found guilty of criminality in court.
I’m never a fan of attacking other candidates or politicians when trying to represent oneself personally. I think it is politically lowbrow and indicative of a poor quality politician, regardless of who does it.
He really comes across as a carpetbagger……. not turning up to the hustings is unforgivable… ….. blaming everyone except th water companies and the Tories shows he’s either stupid or nieve……. both of these are not great qualities in an mp………. I will continue to support the Greens and a pitch for PR in the near future.
Kyle’s canvassers were apparently told to canvass for this clown rather than Kyle. And the other unpopular parachutee in Brighton/Kemptown – Chris Ward. Many walked out. Kyle too seems to think he is a dead cert to win his seat back.
Well it would send a message to Labour perhaps that their “change” agenda (which seems to be morphing into Tories and trampling on any independent voices) isn’t welcomed in Brighton and Hove if Greens retain Pavilion and the vote share in Hove and Kemptown both decrease.
Feels like that could be quite a likely outcome, at a time when there’s almost certainly going to be a national swing that results in a Labour Government it wouldn’t look good. Peter Kyle might regret at that point sending his supporters over to Pavilion if his majority goes down, or if the Labour candidate in Worthing misses out there by a whisker. I’ve heard growing disquiet over that way about the young Labour candidate and his record in Lambeth, he’s got more chance than Gray here, but it’s not a done deal by any means.
There are lots of switched on people in Brighton who can see what’s happening within Labour isn’t healthy and OK – will be interesting to see how it plays out!
£91,346 a year plus all bills and expenses paid to be a Labour drone shoo-in. Great gig for a struggling musician!
So arrogant he will win that attending hustings is beneath him. Contempt for electorate before he’s even got the gig.
I was a member of the Labour party and was astounded by how much pressure was applied to select Tom as a candidate. His speech at the selection meeting was anodyne, promising nothing and he also instructed the chairman to not let him cry, something I perceived as quite fake. Although I want a Labour government, I can not bring myself to vote for Tom.
There’s a discussion to be had about who gets to pick their candidate, which I do not believe is isolated to Labour. Anodyne is a fantastic description that mirrors Labour’s leader’s personality, as common criticism is often given.
Why on earth should anyone want a Labour government? Choosing between Starmer and Sunak like choosing between a knee capping and a kick in the gonads. Neither has anything to offer worth having.
Over three hundred pages of manifesto, and there’s “nothing worth offering”?
…I doubt that.
No one single candidate is going to have all the answers and get it right on all the issues, but he seems a decent enough guy and genuine in his approach. The thought of more Tory rule makes me sick to the stomach, the country is in a bloody mess through mismanagement and leaders who quite simply do not care. Whilst I understand that Tom Gray is not as left wing for many traditional Labour supporters or everyone’s first choice of Labour candidate, I also think being in constant opposition is utterly pointless. Most of the politicians I admire are (and have been) Labour so for them to be in power I’ll be voting Labour.
For me, integrity is the key driver, and that’s not come across from Labour in Pavilion – the whole campaign here has been quite nasty on their part (whereas Green candidate has put out a clean campaign pledge and I can’t remember her being critical of individual candidates, only policies).
There will be a Labour Govt, but if it’s made up of people who have not run an honest campaign and who have taken pop shots wherever they can, I’d prefer a Labour Government with a smaller majority and more independent voices pushing the next Govt to be better.