PPC Profile: Jayne Innes

Full Name: Jayne Innes

Age: 39

PPC for: Nuneaton

Website: www.jayneinnes.org.uk

Twitter: @jayneinnes

Facebook Group: Jayne Innes Standing Up For Nuneaton

Member of the Labour Party since: 1987 – I joined when I was in the 6th Form. The Miners Strike had a deep and lasting effect upon me.

CV:

I’m currently self-employed, mainly helping smaller charities access funding, and/or improve their reach to the people they are set up to help. I am a great supporter of the voluntary sector – it changes lives.

Previously, I promoted travel to the United States. I worked with airlines, hotel chains, leading UK journalists and TV shows. My favourite US destinations are North Carolina’s Outer Banks, for their wild beauty, and Las Vegas for being surreal!

Between 1995 and 1997, I was Paymaster General to Geoffrey Robinson MP.

I’ve also been a long-standing trustee of pioneering jobs charity Job Change, which gave birth to the concept of Job Clubs and ultimately Job Centre+.

Academically, I graduated with a masters degree from Warwick University, and am a qualified primary school teacher.

I was inspired to go into politics because:

I’m a qualified primary school teacher, and in 1992 I was reeling from Labour losing the general election. The final straw came when I was required to ration pencils by length – imagine trying to teach children to write neatly when the pencils are too short to hold properly. I resolved to put teaching on hold, go and work for the Labour Party, and to get rid of the Tories!

I secured a job working for a leading MP, and was inspired to stand myself by seeing the real difference an MP can make to a local area.

There are specific issues I want to become involved with in Westminster. Yet, more than anything, I’m standing because I want to do my best for the people of Nuneaton.

My main policy interests are:

Social care, health, jobs, education, environment.

Some of the people closest to me need support from carers, and will ultimately benefit from the National Care Service. It is time to address the needs of our ageing population, and I am proud that Labour is rising to this challenge.

As a teenager I joined Greenpeace, and I have a long-standing interest in environmental issues. I am a supporter of Friends Of The Earth, and am proud to have been one of the leaders of Nuneaton’s ‘Dump It’ campaign that stopped the Hazardous Waste Plant.

Three things I think should be in the next Labour manifesto are:

1 – Robin Hood Tax

It is only right that the greedy bankers who caused the global recession pay the price of putting our economy right.

2 – National Care Service

Now is the time to address the needs of our ageing population.

3 – Universal free school meals

I’m proud that my own union, the GMB, has done so much for this cause. Childhood obesity is now a major issue, but there are also many other excellent reasons for introducing free school meals across the board, including improving children’s behaviour, concentration, ability to learn and health.

I think people should vote for me because:

I will always fight Nuneaton’s corner, and will strive to be the best possible constituency MP.

I’ve already proven myself as a local champion, having been one of the leaders of the ‘Dump It’ campaign that stopped the Hazardous Waste Plant on the Judkins site. I’m currently fighting hard to save Nuneaton Fire Station, in the face of savage fire cuts from Tory Warwickshire County Council.

I just don’t trust David Cameron, and his privileged cronies. Nor do I believe they understand the challenges faced by ordinary people in everyday life. I’m worried about them putting VAT up to 20% and closing George Eliot Hospital. Either would be a disaster for Nuneaton.

AOB:

I’m a GMB-supported candidate; I’m married to historian and writer Matt Innes; and I’m Mum to twin sons Joe and Greg, aged 7.