EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: There is a power in exercising your vote at local elections

We have suffered under 12 years of Tory Government, with austerity, and an assault on public services, with many going hungry and without essential support.

The Chancellor’s recent budget served only to increase poverty levels.

As poverty peaked, the pandemic hit, businesses closed, people lost their jobs - yet the Government used it as an opportunity to gift billions of pounds of public money - your money, to Tory friends and donors.

During these past 12 years, it has been Labour-led councils that have stepped up to mitigate the worst excesses of Tory rule.

It is Labour councils who have fed hungry children...

Labour councils who ran local test and trace and helped our colleagues in the NHS roll out the Covid vaccine...

Labour councils who charge £322 less in council tax than Tory controlled ones...

Labour councils who keep essential services running, our streets clean, our libraries open, our bins emptied and streetlights on...

Labour councils who spend more on crime reduction, more on children’s services and are fighting the Tories’ woeful plans for adult social care. With Labour councils, from cradle to grave you are safer.

I know people right now may be feeling powerless, but there is power in exercising your vote, by deciding who you want to represent you and to be your voice in our Town Hall, by sending a strong message to what I consider to be the most corrupt Government any of us have ever known.

Representing your community, being their voice, is an honour and privilege.

It is one that should never be taken for granted and always be carried out with the interests of the people who elected you first and foremost, even when that can be difficult.

Doing the right thing can take courage and leave you isolated, but those who elected you will always remember when it mattered you did what was right by them.