 |
| Maggie Fricker TUSC Candidate for Southampton Test in 2024 General Election Photo: Maggie Fricker |
Maggie Fricker is the TUSC 2024 General Election Candidate for the
Southampton Test Constituency. TUSC is the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
Here are Ms Fricker's responses to the six questions that we have asked of all candidates. They are provided in full. We are very grateful to her for providing them at this busy time for candidates and for TUSC.
1. Why are you standing in this General Election?
"We are standing in the General Election to give a voice for a workers fight back against Austerity, cuts to services and against the war."
2. Why are you standing as the Conservative Party Candidate?
"I’m standing for TUSC because it is a coalition of trade unionists and socialists, we come together as activists with a track record of fighting for something better for working people. We fight for better pay and conditions as trade unionists and against cuts to local services."
3. What will you do in the first 100 days if elected?
"If elected I don’t think I will be forming a government, but in parliament I would work with others who are ant-austerity and anti-war and use it as a platform to call for a new mass workers party. We expect Starmer and Labour to form the next government, but they have made it very clear they will act in the interest of the super-rich and the establishment and not ordinary people suffering the worst cut in living standards for 70 years."
4. What do you think are the best top 5 policies of your party?
"We are anti-war and anti-austerity. We demand the £500 Million stolen from Southampton in funding cuts to be returned to the city so we can reverse cuts to local services. We believe the NHS needs a massive increase in the resources it needs and pay restoration to all workers who have suffered cuts to our living standards. We also say kick out the profiteers from the NHS and bring all services back into the public sector. We also believe we should cancel tuition fees and reintroduce bursaries so we can train the 100,000 staff we are short of in the NHS. End the war on Gaza and stop funding and supporting the genocidal regime in Israel. We also believe in voting rights at 16 and for young people to have full pay and £15 an hour minimum wage across the board."
5. What do you think are the top 5 issues that Southampton people want addressed, and what do you intend to do about them?
"We are different to the other parties standing in this election because we call for a mass campaign of ordinary people in the city to fight for the funding we need. We call for a people’s budget which would include an eco-friendly mass house building programme – building low rent council housing, and low cost transport system. We need to have a public works department that can plan properly the road maintenance we need on decent rates of pay. Restore funding for our schools and provide free school meals for all children in full time education. Comprehensive youth and sports services funded and available for all."
6. What track record do you have of winning campaigns?
"I’ve been an activist since I organized school strikes as a kid! I was a local organizer for the Anti-Poll tax union, supporting those threatened with bailiffs and imprisonment, and finally getting ride of it all together. I’ve supported defending youth services and was part of the campaign to save Oaklands swimming pool, we also gave active support in saving the Kentish Rd respite Centre and more recently I was an active member of the successful campaign to save St Mary’s Leisure Centre and supported Nadia Ditta to save the Venny green space in Newtown. As a trade unionist I recently organized strike action at Southampton General Hospital for the Society of Radiographers and we successful saw an increase in our pay."
Why Southampton Independents Is Covering the 2024 General Election
Southampton Independents recommends no particular candidate in the 2024 General Election. We publish this information and the information about the other candidates to help inform Southampton residents for their vote, or for them to choose not to vote or to positively spoil their ballot by writing "none of the above". It's your choice.
The other candidates for Southampton Test, with their answers to our questions, are here.
