PPC Profile: Jonathan Slater

Full Name: Jonathan Slater

Age: 32

From: Hull

PPC for: Aldershot

Website: www.aldershot-labour.org.uk

Member of the Labour Party since: 1995

CV:
I am currently working as a Policy Officer in Children’s Services for Southwark Council, leading on the Every Child Matter outcomes of Making a Positive Contribution and Economic Well-Being. Part of this involves trying to give children and young people in the borough a greater say over how services are delivered on their behalf. I am also currently working on a strategy to help more young care leavers into education, employment or training.

I have over seven years’ experience working in a policy-making environment, working at a national level, at the European Commission, and in numerous local government positions.

I worked for Alan Johnson MP from November 1998 to June 1999, on a research project on the Labour Party’s internal voting arrangements.

Before I was selected as the Labour PPC for Aldershot, I was very active in the Battersea Labour Party. During the 2005 General Election, I was an election campaign organiser for St. Mary’s ward for Martin Linton MP in Battersea.

I have been a member of UNISON for over five years and am on their parliamentary panel. When I worked at London Councils I was the trade union representative within my division, where my duties included representing members’ grievances in discussions with management.

I was inspired to go into politics because:
My parents have very strong collectivist principles. My father was a shop steward for the union BIFU which became UNIFY when he worked at Midland Bank that became HSBC Bank. My mother was an optician who worked for Co-op Eyecare all her professional career because of the ethos of helping people with their eyesight and not to making a profit. I was also lucky to have inspiring teachers at my secondary school (Wolfreton School) just outside of Hull, who taught me Politics and History A-level – including Martin Reed, who is now President of the National Union of Teachers.

Also during my teens in the early 1990s I remember the incompetence and cruelty of the previous Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In particular the humiliation of our exit from the ERM which David Cameron was involved in as the then Chancellor Norman Lamont’s special adviser, and the closing down of the pit collieries at the end of 1992 where the miners where given no support to re-skill or to find alternative employment.

Finally, when Tony Blair became leader in 1994 and changed Clause 4 a year later I felt that the Labour Party truly represented me in having as its core values the commitment to ensure that everyone can realise their full potential by putting power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many and not the few. When I started reading Politics in 1995 at Essex University, I took the plunge and joined the Labour Party!

My main policy interests are:
Children and young people’s services; support for our armed services both at home and abroad; The NHS; Foreign Affairs.

Three things I think should be in the next manifesto:
1 – A commitment to ensuring that schools, colleges, universities and employers work together in a co-ordinated way to provide a proper learner offer for young people, through improving the Information, Advice and Guidance system.

2 – Creating a statutory duty for the elite professions (e.g. politics, law, journalism, and medicine) setting out a fair access policy to widen access to recruits from all social backgrounds.

3 – A commitment to further improve accommodation for our armed services, covering both married and single quarters, and further investment in the equipment and facilities for our soldiers serving abroad. Finally, to financially help former Gurkhas and their closest family members with UK living costs when they take up their deserved right to settle in this country.

I think people should vote for me because:
When I was selected as the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aldershot, I made the following commitments to the voters in my constituency:

* Securing a legacy for Aldershot as the 2012 pre-hosts to the British Olympic Team.

* Having better recycling and rubbish collection in the constituency.

* Fighting for more affordable housing.

* Having more facilities for young people, encouraging them towards positive activities.

* Improved accommodation for the armed services.

* Listening to the concerns of ex-Gurkhas and the Nepalese community in the constituency.

AOB:
If you would like to help me in my campaign then please email me at [email protected] and visit the Aldershot Labour website to find out what we are campaigning on at www.aldershot-labour.org.uk.