Please contact Lauren at Lauren.Sullivan.MP@parliament.uk or for other contact details look here.
About Lauren - Your Labour MP for Gravesham
Lauren is a local resident who is proud, humbled and honoured to have been elected to serve as the Labour MP for Gravesham. Lauren has served residents as a local Councillor for over 9 years both as a Gravesham Borough Councillor where she serves on the Cabinet as the Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure and on the Kent County Council where she is the Leader of the Opposition.
Lauren has a background that is grounded in public service growing up in a household with a nurse mother and a businessman father understanding the value of both public and community service as well as the private sector both being indispensable for our economy and community wellbeing. She has brought that forward in her own life by serving as a teacher and also as a Councillor for over nine years.
Outside politics Lauren is married and is a proud mum to two children educated at local state schools and as well as being a qualified teacher herself giving her a valuable insight into the education system. Lauren is a research scientist who has for many years working on neglected tropical diseases such as malaria. Lauren enjoys the great outdoors often found exploring forests and hills on holidays along with her camera to photograph scenery and then paint them.
Lauren’s values are what are needed for every elected representative, and she feels are missing from national politics at the moment. Values such as social justice, wanting everyone to have the chance to succeed in life no matter their background, ability or need, feeling that our children should have the best start in life with an education system that is fit for purpose. Values of integrity and compassion which should be at the heart of politics ensuring that decisions are taken with the needs of the public at the centre.
Most of all Lauren feels that Gravesham has so much potential that was held back by the Conservatives and can only be unlocked by a Labour MP and a Labour Government. Gravesham has a proud history and heritage spanning centuries that needs investment, our health service that has suffered from years of Tory neglect, with families and adults struggling with housing needs where there are too few truly affordable rents or buy options.
Lauren as a Labour MP for Gravesham with a Labour Government will be a strong voice in Westminster to call for the investment Gravesham needs to unlock its potential.
Gravesham deserves better:
We need to 'Unlock Gravesham's Potential'
Gravesham deserves a better champion to tackle the cost of living crisis and the issues that matter to residents of Gravesend, Northfleet, Meopham, Vigo, Higham, Shorne, Istead Rise, Cobham, Luddesdown, Culverstone, Sole Street and all the areas in-between.
Vision for Gravesham - ‘Unlocking Gravesham’s Potential’
• An unrelenting focus on Jobs and the local Economy – unlocking Gravesham’s potential means an unrelenting focus on jobs and the economy looking for opportunities to attract new employers to the area, retaining our talent within the Borough, reforming business rates and local business taxation ensuring fairness for all and parity with online retailers.
• Quality Public Services, Fit for Purpose – unlocking Gravesham’s potential means that both locally and nationally our public services are fit for purpose locally this means Government should invest in our schools, our highways, our childcare and children centres, our libraries, our leisure facilities, our parks and open spaces and our transport system work for Gravesham and nationally our Government invests in our defence, our water supply, our energy security, our economy and our laws reflect the needs of the country and unlock the UK’s potential.
• Unlocking Local and Community Empowerment – unlocking Gravesham’s potential means working in partnership across Gravesham with parishes, community groups, businesses and communities on their priorities ensuring long term resourcing and the powers to do so. Our local government is also best placed to have powers and resources devolved from Government at a level that is closer to the people so that local representatives and local people can decide on the priorities of their areas.
• An NHS and Health and Social Care System that is fit for purpose – unlocking Gravesham’s potential means that we have a healthy population that can access health services when needed including GP appointments, bringing waiting lists down across the board, ensuring our social care system is fit for purpose and meets the needs of those that need it ensuring dignity and respect.
• Housing that is affordable and meets everyone’s needs – unlocking Gravesham’s potential means that we have a local housing supply mix that is truly affordable across the board for those local residents seeking to buy and rent, to ensuring that a new wave of council housing is built and not subject to right to buy unless an exact like for like is replaced.
Labour’s Five National Missions
“Britain needs a mission-driven government to end short term sticking-plaster politics. These five bold missions will form the backbone of Labour’s election manifesto and will drive forward a Labour government.”
Keir Starmer MP
Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party
1- Get Britain building again – Good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.
A Labour Government will:
- Take tough decisions to restore economic stability and secure our economy.
- Reduce energy bills and invest in the jobs and industries of the future via our Green Prosperity Plan and Great British Energy, a new publicly owned clean generation company.
- Build more homes and help first time buyers with ‘first dibs’ on new homes in their area.
2- Switch on Great British Energy – British people are facing challenges with higher bills and stagnant wages. The only way to cut energy bills for good and deliver energy security is to shift decisively to clean, homegrown low carbon power. Create jobs, cut bills and boost energy security with zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero.
A Labour Government will:
- Create Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned clean power generation company to cut your energy bills and deliver good jobs.
- Cut your energy bill for good – making families up to £1,400 better off a year.
- Create 500,000 new, skilled jobs in the industries of the future, rebuilding the strength of our industrial heartlands.
- Deliver energy security so we’re not dependent on dictators like Putin.
3- Get the NHS back on its feet – There when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.
A Labour government will:
- Cut waiting times by giving the NHS the staff and technology it needs.
- End the 8am scramble for GP appointments and giving patients a choice of appointments in person or on the phone.
- Improve cancer survival rates and reduce deaths from heart disease and suicide.
- More care in the community so patients aren’t stuck in hospital.
4- Take back our streets – Labour believes that feeling secure is the bedrock on which opportunities are built, communities can thrive, and local economies can prosper. That is why Making Britain’s Streets Safe is one of the five missions that will give Britain its future back. Halve serious violent crime and raise confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels.
A Labour government will:
- Put 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs on our streets.
- Halve violence against women and girls, and tougher sentences for rapists.
- Introduce new ‘Respect Orders’, a tough new order with criminal sanctions for antisocial behaviour.
5- Break down barriers to opportunity – Reform the childcare and education systems, raise standards everywhere, and prepare young people for work and life
A Labour government will:
- Create a modern childcare system with breakfast clubs in every primary school to give children the best start.
- Make sure there’s a world class teacher in every classroom, recruiting 6,500 new staff, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools.
- Introduce a broader curriculum, developing creativity, digital and speaking skills that ensure young people leave school ready for work and ready for life.
- Expand apprenticeships and skills training to spread opportunity for all.
More information can be found at www.labour.org.uk/missions
Accessible and Accountable -
I also think that an MP needs to be accessible and accountable. Your local MP should be accessible on a regular basis through regular surgeries in the constituency and contactable through various contact details. Your local MP should also send out regular newsletters and information on their work in Parliament which I pledge to do.
I currently hold regular surgeries already once a month in my role as a Local Councillor - more details on this can be found here and I am in the process of setting up my regular MP surgeries as well.
I am in the process of setting up my local Parliamentary Office as your local MP and my contact details as you local MP for Gravesham can be found here.
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