General election 2024: Full list of Cheltenham candidates vying for votes

Voters head to the polls on July 4 to elect their MP for the Cheltenham constituency. The spa town constituency has been represented in the House of Commons since 1832.

Since 2015, its MP has been Alex Chalk, who was appointed Secretary of State for Justice in 2023. The Conservative is standing for re-election along with Labour’s Lara Chaplin, Independent Daud McDonald and Liberal Democrat Max Wilkinson and Green Party candidate Daniel Wilson.

Below the candidates have set out the reasons why they are standing and what they hope to achieve if elected on July 4.

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Alex Chalk - Conservative and Unionist Party

Cheltenham is my home. I live locally, I grew up locally and my children were born locally. I am passionate about our town - about creating fantastic job opportunities for our young people, whatever their start in life.

And I want to see excellent public services, like Cheltenham A&E where I and so many members of my family have been cared for over the years. People have asked me whether I would stand somewhere else. The answer is no.

This is the town I love, and you are the friends and neighbours I want to represent. It has been he honour of my life to serve you as your MP. We have achieved so much together, securing £184m of investment since 2015 including:

• Over £50m for Cheltenham General, with £172.m for the brand new Chedworth wing, £3m for new Apollo theatres - and £500k for a new cancer institute to revolutionise local treatment. Over £34m for a new school - High School Leckhampton - which cynics said in 2015 was “impossible”!

• Over £50m for Cheltenham’s cyber vision, which I first set out in speech at local firm Converge back in 2014 - including the advanced digital academy at GlosCol.

• £50,000 to rescue Cheltenham Playhouse.

• £1m for a homeless hub in Cheltenham to support the most vulnerable.

• And that’s not counting the ££450m Air Balloon road scheme!

My happiest moment has been when together we saved our A&E after the trust planned to close it. We did it not by press releases and waving placards, but by pulling together a strong legal case to show why the plan was unlawful.

Cheltenham will face challenges in the future. I suspect they’ll come again for our A£E. I am ready for the fight if necessary. I also want to make sure the cyber millions deliver excellent local jobs and not just another housing estate.

And I’ll always stand up against bonkers local schemes like closing Boots Corner if and when they surface again! I hope you’ve seen that I get things done. It would be an honour to finish the job - and to do it for the town I love.

Lara Chaplin - Labour Party

Lara Chaplin is a living example of how people can flourish under a Labour government. She was born into a working-class family in Grimsby in 1968.

At the age of 16 Lara found herself out of school and homeless, and was provided with a caravan as housing by the local authority. At 18 she was pregnant, and for many years she struggled to survive, but she worked her way out of poverty, eventually securing a managerial role with the Odeon Cinema chain.

The commitment to widening participation under the Blair government saw her gaining a place as a mature student in higher education – not just the first in her family, but the first from her community to take this step. Her first degree was a BA (Hons) Business and Tourism Management, after which she completed an MSc in Productivity and Innovation Development.

She also completed a PGCE for which she received a teacher training bursary, and she is now Course Director for all of the Postgraduate Marketing courses at the University of Coventry. Lara says she was inspired by the many strong working-class women, often in the trade union movement, that she encountered on her journey.

Now her background is central to who she is as a general election candidate, permeating her ability to empathise with the many families in Cheltenham who are struggling to provide healthy food, adequate clothing and a warm home. Cheltenham has pockets of severe deprivation, with one ward in the worst 10 per cent in the country, 4,000 children across Cheltenham living in poverty, and a growing number of food banks who all report ever-escalating demand for their services: a clear indictment of the impact of 14 years of austerity and neglect under a succession of malign Tory governments.

Over these years she has also honed her skills in political activity and engagement. For ten years she lived in Tewkesbury, stood as the candidate for Tewkesbury constituency in the 2019 general election and was subsequently chair of the Tewkesbury Labour Party.

So although not currently living in Gloucestershire, she knows the area well, and understands Cheltenham’s socio-economic diversity and its political complexion.

Daud McDonald - Independent

Daud McDonald says he is a well known community activist in Cheltenham with a 17 year history of working to improve his local community by holding the institutions who affect the area to account He is standing for one reason and one reason only, he feels that the uni party system is broken, whoever you vote for the party is still calling the shots.

He believes in the government of the people by the people for the people. He believes that all the other candidates want to work for their party not for the people of Cheltenham

As your MP, he will fight to improve and repurpose many of the empty town centre buildings and improve parking for residents and visitors, he will work diligently to bring solutions to the towns drug and alcohol problem. He will get done what he can and he won’t promise to do what he can’t.

Max Wilkinson - Liberal Democrats

Cheltenham people have a clear choice at this election – stick with the chaotic Conservatives or vote for change and a fairer deal with the Liberal Democrats. Last time, I finished second - just 981 votes behind the Conservatives.

This is a tight marginal seat I am grateful to all the Labour and Green Party supporters lending me their vote to help us defeat this awful government. They are joined by many former Conservatives who are switching to vote for the Liberal Democrats this time.

I’m saddened by the way we’ve all been taken for granted these past few years. People tell me they feel let down – not least by the sewage scandal, cost-of-living crisis and the state of the NHS. I’ve already served this town for more than a decade, so I know where we need to make improvements. Whether it’s getting a fair deal for our NHS, protecting our precious environment, or making progress on the cost-of-living, I have a plan to help.

As a councillor these past ten years, I’ve already helped our town make progress. The tough new rules I initiated to get a better deal from developers are already getting results. I’ve pushed through a plan for town centre prosperity to deal with empty shops. I’ve worked hard on climate change and to support food bank users. Cheltenham’s £180million affordable housing plan followed my campaign for investment.

I have the backing of many local businesspeople as a result of this work. I’m committed to fighting to fix our NHS. My campaign for a new GP surgery for our town has won widespread support. Our birth unit must be fully reopened as soon as is safely possible, so Cheltenham families aren’t forced to travel out of town for their children to be born.

The Lib Dem plan would improve dental services too. I’m sorry to see the Conservative plan to reinstate our 24/7 doctor-led A&E has failed. With your support this time, I can help Cheltenham get the fair deal our town deserves. If elected, I will always put the town I love first – ahead of my career or party politics.

Daniel Wilson - Green Party

I’m standing as your parliamentary candidate for the Green Party, building on the nearly 10,000 Green votes from people in Cheltenham last month. I’m not a career politician – I’ve worked in business all my life, building and leading successful companies across Europe.

I’m married with four daughters and have lived in this area for over 20 years. Locally, I’m a trustee of the Cheltenham Trust chairing the commercial Board, and a director at Foodloose, our community’s own refill and plastic-free shop.

The outgoing government has failed on nearly every measure it was elected upon. Cheltenham didn’t have food banks before 2010. We had a functioning A&E, enough doctors and dentists, a thriving high street, affordable university tuition, and a social security system properly supporting the vulnerable.

This decline started under the Lib Dem/Tory coalition in 2010 and their austerity policy. For too long, residents have felt ignored by politicians offering very similar choices between parties recently in coalition together.

But now, as we face the cost-of-living and climate crises head-on, it’s time for real change. I’m putting forward bold policies to meet these challenges: a nationwide home insulation programme to reduce energy bills, rejoining the EU, a wealth tax on the richest to improve public services like the NHS, taking utilities into public ownership, and implementing rent controls and ending no-fault evictions.

The Conservatives are likely to lose this election – all commentators agree. The writing is on the wall, shown by having no Tory borough councillors in Cheltenham now, with the Green Party as official opposition to the Lib Dems. Real Hope. Real Change. Vote Green. Vote for Daniel Wilson, on July 4.