Sarah Smith MP - Hope again for Hyndburn response to Farage

Our home is not a place that is ‘broken’.

Are there challenges? Of course there are. Every community across our country faces challenges, and I will never shy away from ours.

I know the government needs to bring down the cost of living, tackle illegal immigration, and improve our public services.

And we are making progress.

We’re increasing the minimum wage, providing 30 hours of funded childcare, freezing rail fares, capping bus fares at £2 and taking VAT off energy bills.

Small boat crossings have fallen to their lowest levels in six years, and net migration is at its lowest level since 2021.

NHS waiting lists are coming down. And here at home, we have two new schools being built at Hyndburn Academy and Haslingden High School.

But I know there is still a lot more to do.

Read Nigel Farage's op-ed in today's Lancashire Telegraph here.

That is why Andy Burnham has outlined plans to restore more public control over essential services - because we know that water and energy prices have spiralled for far too long.

And while Reform tried to close care homes across Lancashire, including Woodlands in Hyndburn, Andy Burnham is determined to create a National Care Service so that no one has to worry about how they will pay for their care when they get old.

None of these are easy fixes. The truth is, there are no quick fixes for the damage left behind by the last Conservative government.

Yet it is from that failed government that Nigel has sourced his ‘talent’.

People like former Home Office ministers Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, who oversaw record levels of small boat crossings, and Nadhim Zahawi, who served in Liz Truss’s Cabinet.

And Farage hasn't just received £72 billion in donations from two crypto billionaires - while promising a crypto tax cut. He tried to cover up a £5 million personal "gift" from one of them, and is still under investigation for a potential breach of parliamentary rules.

Farage doesn’t care about Hyndburn. He wants to become Prime Minister, so he can cut taxes for his rich mates.

And if Nigel’s best strategy is to pit one community against another and talk our home down, then it is on all of us to stand up and say: we have defeated this before, and we will defeat it again.

Because that isn’t the Hyndburn I know.

The Hyndburn I know is full of people who care deeply about their communities and believe in their future.

It is our brilliant local businesses like Ossy Mills, our independent shops, cafés like Brie Mine and the pubs that give our towns their character and provide jobs for our neighbours.

It is Accrington Stanley and Accrington Stanley Women. Our cricket clubs, gyms and community sports groups that give children and adults somewhere to belong, compete and come together.

It is the people at Amazing Accrington and Accrington and Rossendale College being number one in the country.

It is Happy Cat’s Rescue and all the people who foster their cats - taking strays off our streets and giving them a new lease of life.

It is our proud industrial heritage, our innovative global businesses and the generations of people who built their homes and raised their families on these streets.

These are the people who make our home what it is. People Nigel will never meet.

And alongside them, investment and regeneration are already beginning to change our towns for the better.

The Market Hall will reopen later this year. Accrington Pride in Place is investing £20m in the town. And the Accy Vic site is being redeveloped.

These are projects I am leading to deliver real change for our community.

I want Hyndburn and Haslingden to be known for the courage of our communities, the quality of our businesses, the beauty of our heritage, the talent of our people and the opportunities we give to the next generation.

That is the future I believe in. And I won’t stop until we make that vision a reality.

Together, that is what we are going to build. It is time to have Hope Again.