Jill Hope is the Liberal Democrats' parliamentary candidate for Northampton South
Why you should vote for Jill Hope
Northampton has a history of rebel MPs. That started with Charles Bradlaugh the Liberal, but the tradition continued with Labour’s Tony Clarke and Conservative Brian Binley. Both men were larger than life and fiercely proud of Northampton. They put the town ahead of their party. When they stood up in the House, which they both did frequently, they talked about Northampton and fought hard for the town.
Since then the seat has been held by the Conservatives, but the passion has gone. We now have MPs that vote along party lines – recently all 4 Northampton MPs voted against an amendment that would have made the highly-paid water company bosses criminally liable for polluting our waterways.
I entered politics because I was angry. Angry about so many things that were being neglected by successive Governments, that didn’t seem to understand the reality of living and working in this country. How can a Prime Minister who’s richer than the Royal Family claim to know what it’s like to be poor, unable to get a job earning more than the basic wage, unable to pay your rent or mortgage as interest rates rise?
I worked hard as a local councillor for 12 years trying to help local residents who were struggling with problems with housing, schools, benefits, family breakdown. Time and time again I felt that I was trying to rescue people from a river, who were going down for the third time. Eventually I came to realise that there were so many people in the river because the uncaring Government upstream was pushing them in. That was when I decided that the only way to fix this was to become an MP, and an MP that doesn’t behave like cannon fodder, but an MP who speaks up, shouts up for the people that don’t have a voice.
I was a rebel at school from a young age, leading a walk out of most of the school when someone was punished for something they didn’t do. I’ve always been the person who asks the difficult question that everyone thinks but no-one speaks up. So you can look at the manifestos and make your own mind up about the party whose values match yours, but you also need to make your mind up about the sort of person you want to represent you.
Do you want a yes man or an angry woman? Who do you think would fight the hardest for you?
Jill's Biography
Biography:
Jill Hope was a councillor in Northampton for 12 years. She worked in the past with long-term unemployed people in the town, and has helped hundreds of people to start up their own businesses. Jill says: “Many people who are made redundant later in life, as I was myself, think that they are on the scrap-heap, but that’s not necessarily the case. If you have a skill or a passion, that can often be developed into a business that pays the bills.”
Jill has lived in Northamptonshire since 1976 and has raised her 4 children here. Two of those children work locally, one developing social housing for this area, and another as a GP. Jill is a graduate in English with a postgraduate diploma in law, accountancy, statistics and economics. Jill has worked for several different local employers including Barclaycard, the Northants Co-operative Development Agency, The University of Northampton and Business Link.
As a councillor Jill has helped many people locally with school admissions, disability tribunals and housing problems. In addition she has been a school governor, has supported the Friends of St James Park, Friends of St James Library, helped support residents’ associations in Upton, Pineham Village and Hunsbury Hill Avenue. Jill has campaigned on many local issues including road safety in St James and West Hunsbury, structural faults in properties in Upton, planning issues in the Hunsbury Hill Avenue estate, unfair management charges in Upton.
Asked why she wants to become an MP Jill commented: “I have helped lots of local people with serious problems, the queue never gets any shorter. I realised that the problems arose from bad policies at Government level. Instead of patching up the wounded, I want to change the policies that cause the pain and suffering.
Jill's Beliefs and Principles
I am a long standing member of the Liberal Democrats - I believe that they have the best policies for the future of the UK
Contact Me
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