For this week’s general election, OTS News invited all six Southport parliamentary candidates to interview. Patrick Hurley, Sean Halsall, and Edwin Black were interviewed in person. Damien Moore and Erin Harvey agreed to recorded interviews, but due to internal constraints, these were conducted in writing. Reform UK’s Andrew Lynn declined to participate.
OTS News: Could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself? Even a quick search online brings up snippets of a very busy and varied career: parliamentary researcher in Burnley, a former staff on John Pugh’s team, diplomatic work in Tunisia (with a British Empire medal for your efforts), Colombia and London. What would you say are your key political beliefs?
Erin Harvey: I was born in Liverpool and went to school in Maghull. I studied Law and then a Master of Laws specialising in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice of the Middle East and Africa. My first job out of university was as a caseworker for John Pugh here in Southport. I worked for two other Lib Dem MPs in Parliament: Susan Kramer and Gordon Birtwistle before leaving politics and going into Government. I worked for three government departments in the heart of Whitehall and am proud of some of my achievements there – from setting up the now industry owned and well-respected Tomorrows Engineers Week campaign to get more young people into engineering, to undertaking difficult negotiations with foreign governments in the Middle East and Gulf on behalf of the Home Office. I was then posted out to the British Embassy in Tunisia in a very specialised role where I worked closely with the Tunisian Government in the aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attacks that killed 38 people including 30 British nationals. I also worked closely with the Algerian and Libyan Governments and travelled around the world to advise Governments in countries with a high risk of terrorism. After 4.5 years I moved to Colombia for 2 years and my daughter was born there. I left UK government in 2021 to work as a consultant advisor to US government and UN funded projects in Libya and travel there regularly.
I came back to Politics only last year after an 11 year break and was drawn back because I was shocked after coming back to Southport to see the decline in the town centre and because I was worried about how apathetic people seemed to politics, how hard people’s lives had become and how divisive the government was with rhetoric that really scared me.
My key political belief is that everybody deserves an equal chance in life no matter the circumstances they were born into. That’s why we need excellent schools, free early years education, a strong safety net, to reduce poverty and to have a great NHS. I care deeply about the environment and our planet, and I am a strong internationalist; I believe we are stronger together rather than isolated. I believe human rights, global peace and the environment should be at the heart of our international policy making.
OTS News: What would you say the biggest issue affecting Southport is currently – and how would you fix that as an MP?
I think these are the points I have put in all my leaflets including:
– NHS access and services available
– The environment
– Regeneration of the town centre including the pier
And in addition to this I would add poverty and child poverty in particular.
As mentioned above NHS services in the town are not meeting peoples needs and there is a clear lack of NHS dentists available. Southport has an incredibly unique ecosystem and the coastline is changing. We must protect the environment to protect Southport from future flooding. I’d like to see us plant more trees and become a much greener city with more solar on public buildings and more EV charge points.
Southport is a wonderful place to live but Lord Street has a lot of empty shops, our iconic pier is closed and there are a lot of stalled projects. I think the town needs a strong vision to get Lord Street thriving again, scrapping business rates and managing rents to allow more small and medium size businesses to start up that create a strong, independent local economy. I would also like to push for reinstating the Burscough Curves to have better train links across the region, and I would like to work with regional transport bodies to explore a fast train to Manchester in peak times to allow for better commuting from Southport and to stop ‘brain drain’ of young people leaving.
Whilst Southport, in general, is an affluent area, there are pockets of deprivation and 1 in 3 children living in poverty. The Lib Dems have committed to scrapping the two-child cap on universal credit. With cost of living rises we have seen more and more ‘working poor’ and reliance on food banks. The two-child cap, which was introduced in 2017 by the Tories, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. It means many working families cannot claim about £3,200 a year per extra child. This also disproportionately affects single parent families and families with disabled children. We must stop penalising innocent children and make sure we have a safety net for low-income families that actually works. Lifting the two-child cap is the quickest and easiest way to do this.
OTS News: In local elections over the past few years the Liberal Democrats have generally done very well in terms of vote share, but this success hasn’t been shared in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, where Southport’s Liberal Democrat candidate was beaten into third place in both instances. Why do you think there is this discrepancy between local and general election results?
The Liberal Democrats have a good reputation locally as working hard and standing up for Southport. But we have seen across the country that people vote very differently in local elections compared to national ones. In 2017 and 2019 there was the ‘get Brexit done’ and Boris support which was a tide against us here locally. We have also seen Labour make gains here which could be down to changing views or a changing demographic. And we have seen a lot of tactical voting. We have a voting system (first past the post) which makes people worried their vote won’t count and when people start to worry about this, they often cast their votes differently even if they support us. We need to let people know that we can win here and it’s not a lost vote. Labour have been asking Lib Dem supporters to lend them their vote to get the Tories out. But we still have the ability to beat the Tories if people who want to vote for us actually do so.
OTS News: You’ve said that you want to make Southport “a leader in coastal energy” – what form does that take?
We absolutely must move away from fossil fuels for a number of reasons: 1. They are bad for the environment; 2. we are too reliant on supply from countries at risk of instability (i.e. Russia/Ukraine); 3 these global crises enabled companies to up fuel prices forcing over two million more brits into fuel poverty whilst oil and gas companies have made record profits (British Gas profits for 2023 increased 10-fold to £750m). We absolutely need to have a clean energy transition. This means certainty in the renewables market for more innovation and research, and lifting unnecessary Conservative restrictions on new wind and solar power. The Lib Dems have committed to investing in innovation in new forms of renewable energy including tidal and wave. Southport with its coastline will be at the frontline of the fight against climate change but we also have a great opportunity to be forefront of innovation that could reduce our reliance on oil and gas and create more jobs and increased prosperity in Southport.
OTS News: When you announced your candidacy, you described “a Labour party in Bootle who time and again put Southport’s interests behind other parts of Sefton.” There’s certainly plenty to critique about Labour’s governance of Sefton but what specific instances are there where Southport has lost out to other areas? What effect has this had on the town?
If we look at funding from Sefton its clear Southport gets a lot for care services given the high number of care homes in the area, but for amenities and leisure it does get less. Some examples are as follows (this is not an exclusive list, just some of the most well-known examples):
– £34m found to buy the strand (borrowed from PWB) but the council will not commit to repairing the pier or even partially funding the repair and finding national match funding for the rest
– Failed to support a Southport Sports Park but built one in Bootle
– Failed to press for the Burscough Curves at the city region level
– Did not champion the tidal lagoon in Southport but have supported one in Merseyside
– Huge delays and repeated failures in regeneration projects in Ainsdale at the beach Gateway (an area with huge potential) but spent millions on Crosby Marina
– Shut down popular Southport Area Committee
– Closed down three well used libraries in Southport (Birkdale, Churchtown and Ainsdale but kept open less-used libraries in Bootle
OTS News: The Liberal Democrats have pledged a legal right to a GP appointment within 24 hours. What is your assessment on the local situation regarding access to healthcare? What improvements can realistically be made?
For many people in Southport, getting a GP appointment is becoming harder and harder. This can lead to avoidable trips to A&E, leading to increased pressure on our services. We need more GPs (the Lib Dems have pledged to increase GP numbers by 8000) and a guarantee of appointments (also Lib Dem policy). Southport and the surrounding areas are being let down in terms of the NHS services available and accessible. We need a pragmatic and workable solution for our town and I believe a 24 hour urgent care/walk-in centre, open to children and adults, would help to alleviate the pressure and serve local needs. If elected I would do everything in my power to make this a reality.
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