'I will be voting for a different party this year' Leicestershire single mum's take on General Election

A Leicestershire single mum has laid out her priorities when deciding who to vote for in the upcoming election. Kimberley Mountford told LeicestershireLive she would be voting this year - but for a different party to the one which has had her support in the past.

The 40-year-old lived most of her life in Braunstone, Leicester, and now lives in Ratby, with her seven-year-old daughter who attends a specialist school. Kimberley said she loved the 'rural village' feeling of the area without being too far from her parents nor the city's amenities.

Kimberley is a full-time carer for her daughter, who was born in 2017 and is diagnosed with bi-lateral hearing loss, autism, learning difficulties, sensory processing difficulties, and developmental delay. She said SEND education and the NHS were her top priorities when deciding who to vote for.

READ MORE: Our election candidates tell you why they believe they deserve your vote

She said NHS waiting lists were too long and causing people to suffer unnecessarily. She would also be looking out for what provisions would be made for disabled people and their carers, she added.

Tackling crime in the neighbourhoods and policing would be next on her list, as well as the environment. Kimberley also added farming to her list of priorities, and said farmers needed fairer prices from supermarkets and more support from the government to survive.

She said that since being in power, the Conservatives had whittled SEND support down, and even though staff were medically qualified they were being paid minimum wage to carry out complex services to the most vulnerable. This has meant, she added, that those trained staff were turning elsewhere for better paid jobs.

The mum said she was worried that already cash-strapped councils were "wasting money" on tribunals for SEND provision that "always go in the parents' favour", and that that money could instead be spent on providing SEND services. She said she believed parents of SEND children "have enough on their hands" taking children to hospital and other appointments without having to fight for services for their children's development.

In the last General Election, Kimberley voted Conservative. This time round, she said, she would be backing Labour.

After the winner of the General Election takes power, she said, she would like to see providers of SEND support being paid a "fair wage" so schools would not "struggle" to employ the "right" staff, more respite care being made available to parents and carers and more inclusive clubs being provided for children who need one-to-one and two-to-one support.

Who is standing in your neighbourhood? Here are all the Leicestershire General Candidates. Here is why they think you should vote for them.