Wes Streeting latest Labour big hitter to visit Dudley vying for votes

LABOUR’S Wes Streeting was the latest big hitter to stop off in the Dudley borough vying for votes.

Streeting, Labour’s shadow minster for health and social care, was out canvassing in Dudley and Halesowen on Thursday (June 20).

His visit to the two Black Country constituencies, which Labour is hoping to turn red, followed a visit by party leader Sir Keir Starmer – the man tipped to be the UK’s next Prime Minister – on June 13.

Streeting, who had been out campaigning with Dudley Labour candidate Sonia Kumar and Halesowen Labour candidate Alex Ballinger, told the News: “We’ve had a really good response on the doorstep, we’ve met people who are lifelong Conservatives who are voting Labour for the first time and Labour people who’ve already started voting by post.

“That’s the thing the election is now underway, people are casting their votes but across Dudley and Halesowen there are still thousands of people who are undecided and we’re working hard to win over - and across the country millions of people who are undecided. We’re working hard for every vote in the run-up to the election.”

He said one of the biggest issues cropping up on the doorstep was about concerns around access to NHS GPs and dentists and he said: “People are really struggling to get access to GPs and NHS dentists. A Labour government would act by training up thousands more GPs and cutting through the red tape that ties them up so we can bring back that family doctor relationship, so people can get an appointment without having to do the 8am scramble.

“We’re going to modernise bookings through things like the NHS app, so people don’t have to call at 8am or worse still queue round the block.

“And on NHS dentistry our first step will be to deliver an extra 700,000 urgent dentistry appointments every year and at the same time reforming the NHS dentistry contract so we can rebuild NHS dentistry so it’s there for people when they need it.”

He stressed the plans are “fully costed, fully funded policies” and said: “Every promise we make in our manifesto is a promise we can keep and a promise the country can afford.”

He said the reason he’d been out canvassing in Dudley and Halesowen “is that ultimately it will be voters in places like Dudley and Halesowen that are going to determine who governs the country”.

He added: “The West Midlands has always been the region that ultimately decides who governs Britain. The choice facing people on July 4 is do they want another five years of chaos and division with the Conservatives or will they choose change with Labour. I think people can see the Labour Party’s changed. Keir Starmer’s worked hard to reconnect Labour with the people whose trust we should never have lost and we’ve got some brilliant candidates who’ve got real experience to bring to Parliament.

“If you look at Sonia, she’s a physiotherapist who’s already serving the people of Dudley as an NHS physiotherapist – and with Alex we’ve got someone who’s served our country in the Royal Marines and is ready to serve Halesowen as a really effective local MP.”