PPC Profile: Greg Lovell

Full Name: Greg Lovell

Age: 34

From: Corsham, Wiltshire

PPC for: Chippenham

Member of the Labour Party Since: 2008

Selection Result: Selected to replace Nick Thomas-Symonds in December 2009 with majority support of CLP.

Website: greg4chippenham.co.uk

Twitter: @greglovelluk

CV: I was born in Blackburn and grew up near Dartford in Kent. I studied English Literature at Sheffield University, then worked in online marketing for four years until retraining as a solicitor at BPP Law School. I then worked for a large City law firm as a commercial contracts lawyer before becoming thoroughly disillusioned with international business and leaving to set up my own small online fairtrade shop, This Fair Earth, in early 2008.

I live in Corsham in the new constituency of Chippenham, in which I am standing. I should make it clear that when I moved to the area there was a candidate in place and it was only in December 2009 that I was selected after the incumbent was forced to step down. I have not been parachuted in to use Chippenham as a training ground!

I have a new baby daughter, Iris, and live with my wife Liz, who works in human resources for a firm in Bristol.

I was inspired to go into politics because:
I saw from the inside the empty soul of global capitalism. I would not criticise the individuals who work long hours inside major corporations and banks, but I lost the will to be a part of it very quickly. I thought that if I was going to put my heart and soul into what I spent every day doing, I needed to believe in it passionately. Setting up the fair trade business and joining the Labour Party went hand in hand with this.

I have always been a supporter of Labour, although I am not going to pretend to agree with everything we’ve done in the past 13 years. My aim in politics is to stand up for the poorest in society – whether financially or in terms of opportunity. I believe that to succeed in this, the left must be committed to convincing everyone of the benefits of equality. This is why I am particularly focused on policy and ideological debate. I hate the cult of personality that seems to have developed in UK politics. You’d feel the same if you were running against a brand of sausages rather than a politician.

My main policy interests are:
Equality – local and global. While I applaud our enormous achievements in supporting the less well-off, such as the minimum wage, tax credits, pension increases and winter fuel payments, there is an ideological hurdle that Labour needs to get over. We can genuinely tackle inequality while supporting enterprise, but we need to be bolder in terms of progressive taxation. Whether or not people earning £100,000 plus a year think they are rich or not, by any sensible measure, they are. Making the tax burden much fairer should not be seen as “class war” or taxing hard work, but a way of everyone contributing to making our country fairer and happier. Raising CGT and introducing a tax on excessive profits on property transactions (primary residence included) need to be considered.

And we must not ignore global poverty. Aside from the moral shame of exploiting the third world, cheap global labour limits our own competitiveness. We need to work harder to make global organisations using poorly-paid workers abroad sign up to binding international commitments on fair pay and conditions.

Education – A vibrant, relevant and positive education for everyone is vital to help achieve equality. We must create a system where every school offers a strong education, with a wide mix of pupils, managed by headteachers, supported by parents and bound into the local community. We should not encourage small special-interest groups to create schools and suck resources from the mainstream.

The environment – the poor suffer most from climate change and will continue to do so. The UK should lead the world in green innovation and as a nation should be energy self-reliant, using renewable resources as soon as practicable. Climate change is both a massive threat and a huge opportunity. We need to address both.

Three things I think should go into the next Labour manifesto are:
Changes to benefit payments – we should taper the lifting of benefit payments to give people an incentive to work without losing the support of the state immediately. While marginal tax rates and the poverty gap are tricky issues to address, the essential aim of the welfare state should be to protect the lives and dignity of those in need while giving them the motivation and support to participate fully in society.

A speculative transaction tax – whether a Tobin tax or the Robin Hood tax, Labour must commit to creating a global tax on socially-useless speculation. The banks had their time in the sun and it was ordinary people who got burnt. There is no excuse for not redressing the balance now – not for retribution, just to bring order and control to the market.

Government-backed green investment – We need to make the UK a leader in new technologies. This will come through education (which must be protected) and subsequent innovation. I support a tax framework which encourages innovation and UK manufacturing, and a fund of government investment money to help viable new UK businesses. Help for business needs to be targeted and not just a blanket corporation tax cut, which doesn’t focus money in the right areas..