Broom promises clean sweep if adopted by Tories

Jan 11 2010 By Adam Courtney

Councillor Philippa Broom

THE only Spelthorne-based Tory candidate is confident her local credentials can persuade residents to propel her into office at the General Election.

Councillor Philippa Broom, of Laleham Road, must first go up against five Conservative rivals at a public meeting on January 22, where residents will decide on the Tory candidate most suitable to lead the party into the new era.

And, having lived in the borough for nearly 10 years, Miss Broom says she is the candidate residents should look to to replace disgraced Somerset-based David Wilshire and sweep the borough into a new dawn.

She said: "The idea of representing the place in which you live is very exciting. You look at things in a totally different way – what's real to residents is real to me too. I can only go on what people are saying to me and it is clear they want a local candidate – even opposition supporters say the same."

Among her pledges, Miss Broom, a former NSPCC fund raiser and now an international democracy development worker employed by the Tories, promises to: Keep a log of all expenses and publish them online. refuse a second home in London, end 'garden-grabbing' over-development, push through flood defence plans, 'address' police cuts, and make Spelthorne's economy less reliant on Heathrow.

She is adamant it is time for politics to move on from the expenses saga and is pledging to 'connect' with the Spelthorne electorate to prevent the proliferation of extreme political parties.

"It doesn't matter who you speak to," she said. "The public are completely disillusioned with politics. This year has been extremely hard. As someone who has receipted every last penny, the expenses shocked me. But we have to move forward and start building trust because if we don't more and more people will turn to extreme politics.

"It will be hard but at least the saga has shown people can still be held to account, and every single MP will now be in no doubt as to the views of the public. It has created a clean slate and it's all about accountability now."

A concern of residents with Mr Wilshire has been his apparent lack of attendance at both Parliament and in the borough, something Miss Broom, who says she has close links to Party Leader David Cameron and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, insists she will change.

"I will be a full-time MP with bells on!" she said. "And my links with the front bench can only be a good thing for the borough. You have got to be seen to be acting, you have got to be out and about and listening and I am going to be all over the place, meeting, speaking and listening. Once you understand the issues, you can move forward."

Many of those issues, she believes, are underpinned by a loss of people power and, with that, a loss of the area's identity.

"My top priority is to bring back decision-making to the local community. People are sick and tired of being suffocated by red tape, of being dictated to. I think people in general are happy in their communities but they are very frustrated with bureaucracy. We need to recognise one size doesn't fit all – there are a network of diverse communities in the borough which make it the special place it is. We aren't London, we aren't Surrey – our profile is different."

Aside from stopping over-development, improving policing and moving forward the £300m flood defence plan, Miss Broom also believes Spelthorne is too reliant on the airport for its economic prosperity and, with the help of her colleagues on the Business Forum and Business Network International, hopes to change that.

"If we can attract business to the area it will diversify some of the reliance. We need a strong economy," she added.

Miss Broom is up against Katy Bourne, a managing director, Therese Coffey, a property finance manager, Surrey County Councillor Dr Lynne Hack, Michael McManus, a law firm advisor and Cambridge University graduate and City analyst Kwasi Kwarteng at the meeting at Kempton Park from 6.30pm on January 22.

To attend, you must register by January 18 on the Spelthorne Conservative Association website: www.spelthorneconservatives.com