Election interview: Andrew Stott
With just six days to go before the General Election, Newbury Today is re-running interviews with each of the eight candidates standing for the Newbury seat that first appeared in the Newbury Weekly News.
Today we profile Patriotic Socialist Party candidate Andrew Stott on his policies and his chances in the upcoming May 7 General Election.
Keep an eye on our website in the run up to the election for all of the Parliamentary profiles
“I WANT to help build a fairer and more equal society for all.”
The youngest candidate from the youngest party standing at the General Election, Andrew Stott is feeling confident about the pending election.
He told the his top three priorities for the constituency are the development of more social and affordable housing, the electrification of the rail line, and stimulating the local economy.
“One of the major issues in Britain,” he said, “and in Newbury, is the lack of social and affordable housing, but also the fact that more than 600,000 homes lie empty, a third of which have been vacant for more than six months.
“We need to apply a carrot-and-stick method to encourage owners of empty properties to sell or rent them out while increasing council tax rates for empty homes.”
The party are also seeking to renationalise and electrify the rail lines locally.
He said: “The British taxpayer already heavily subsidises the now-privatised rail lines and all we receive in return is extortionate fares and poor-quality services.
“Like many of our aims, when it comes to public transport, we seek to put people before profit.
“When it comes to the economy, both I and the Patriotic Socialist Party oppose the widely-accepted belief among the mainstream that austerity is the best way to stimulate economic growth, create new job opportunities or to create a fairer and more equal society as a whole.”
He wants a cessation of the HS2 programme, a scrapping of Trident, the introduction of a mansion tax and to close tax loopholes and tax avoidance schemes.
He said: “By cutting unemployment quickly and greatly the increasing spending power of millions of people, the welfare budget will fall and demand for products and services will increase.
“This will lead to a thriving economy which, in turn, will generate government revenue in order to pay down the national debt. All the while the standards of living for the majority will improve.”
He added he would renationalise the Bank of England to take control of the country’s monetary policy. He said: “Taking such powers away from the banks will allow for greater control of inflation, the abolition of interest on created money and investment in the real economy.”
On immigration he wants to introduce a system “based on economic sustainability”.
“The free movement of people must be ended by withdrawing from the European Union and introducing a universal points-based system to manage immigration levels in the future.”
Also standing in the General Election for the Newbury constituency is Barrie Singleton (Independent), Peter Norman (Apolitical), Jonny Roberts (Labour), Catherine Anderson (UKIP), Paul Field (Green), Judith Bunting (Liberal Democrat) and sitting MP Richard Benyon (Conservative).
