General Election 2024: What the Worthing West candidates have to say

Candidate nominations for the constituency and across the UK closed on Friday, June 7, with six candidates hoping to be Worthing West’s next Member of Parliament.

At the last election, Conservative Sir Peter Bottomley – who has served as MP for Worthing West since the constituency’s creation in 1997 – secured a 14,823-vote majority.

The Boundary Review, completed last year, saw changes to the constituency, with Angmering and Findon being included and Rustington removed.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reached out to candidates to ahead of the election. Here is what they had to say…

Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative): Constituents know I work for them. As Father of the House, I can be the most effective voice in Parliament. Whips do not expect me to follow a party line that I judge wrong. Seen as a liberally-minded, socially conscious, national interest Conservative, I fight for common sense, whatever the government. Actively I protect our green spaces, strongly opposing inappropriate housing along the A259 and A27, around Angmering, Findon, Kingston, Ferring, East Preston and Goring by Sea with Worthing. Recent national campaigns: my cross-party efforts gained justice for infected blood victims, sub-post office owners and residential leaseholders. These achievements are not overnight successes they required years of persistent effort, cooperating with charities and volunteers. Leasehold and park home residents have more to gain with me fighting with them. I do not give up. Under Labour’s last government, I worked with allies across the district and town to save threatened essential NHS services at Worthing Hospital, to relocate St Barnabas House and to reestablish Worthing College and Northbrook. Progress of pupils and students locally has been outstanding. I support school and college leaders. We have been successful, managing numbers of school places and gaining agreement for the new SEND primary school. People appreciate help and advice from my caring team and our dedication to resolve problems of every kind. I respect our faith groups, cooperating effectively for the benefit of all. I have supported the transition from reliance on carbon energy: electricity no longer comes much from fossil fuels. Peace and democracy matter around the world. We need just ending of war, especially for Middle East and Ukraine tragedies where innocent lives are lost. Please re-elect me to continue serving as your MP, tackling challenging problems, delivering on your priorities and doing good for our communities.”

Rebecca Cooper (Labour): I’m delighted to be representing Worthing West in the upcoming General Election on 4th July. As the first and current Labour Leader of Worthing Borough Council – it would be a huge privilege to be the MP for the area where I live and my children go to school. In 2017 I became Worthing’s first Labour Councillor for over 40 years and since then I have led our local Labour Group to take control of the Council – increasing from one to 23 Labour councillors in just five years. Our Council ambition is for Worthing to be the fairest, greenest coastal town in the UK. But I don’t want to stop there for Worthing West – I want to take our fair and green aims to Westminster and represent our communities as their MP. I am a Public Health Doctor and my training and experience has taught me that people do better in more equal societies. My Public Health work has been focused on helping people to live well and healthily, yet I have been frustrated time and again by poor political decision-making in a short-sighted, broken system. And so I have decided to stand, to bring change and help as many people as possible live fair and healthy lives. I have a wealth of experience from working in the NHS, local authorities, NGOs and private companies. I am empathetic, future focused and yet able to learn from the past. This combination of skills and life experience is not common enough in politics – something I am determined to draw on in helping to give Worthing West its future back.”

Morag Chugg (Liberal Democrats): My name is Morag Chugg and it is an honour to be the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Worthing West. I am standing because I have a lifetime commitment to serving my community, from my previous role as a uniformed armed officer, or serving on my local council for four years, to helping local food charities fight poverty, and I want to bring this experience to make a difference for Worthing West. Worthing is a wonderful town with a vibrant community, and we can work together to bring positive change to our town. For me there are four key issues for this election: support our communities to recover from the cost of living crisis – many of our amazing community projects are struggling to fill in the gaps for people in need, when these issues should be the responsibility of the Government; accessible and free NHS services, especially doctor and dentist appointments, are vital – we must reverse the scandalous neglect and decline that has occurred under this Government, over and over again the NHS staff give wonderful support to us all, the time has come for us to support them in return; fighting for the rights of young people, advocating for them in all the challenges that they face, and highlighting the lack of urgently needed support services and opportunities available to them and preventing any further land being released for housing developments in and around Worthing West, which is trapped between the housing developments along the A27 between Shoreham and Chichester – the A27 is already beyond capacity, and this is becoming untenable for our residents. I believe the Lib Dems offer the best solutions for everyone, and I can offer the passion, commitment and experience to help make a real difference here.

Sonya Mallin (Green Party): A vote for the Green Party is a vote for Real Hope. Real Change. Every day I deliver change as a project manager in education and as a local, I can bring this experience into getting things done for us all in Worthing West. I have campaigned tirelessly for more funding to support autism & ADHD diagnosis in children – getting a petition with over 21,000 signatures debated in Parliament in February, 2023. And now I’m pushing for better mental health services for children. Families are in crisis and expected to just ‘get on with it’ with no help. It’s not good enough. We’ve got sewage in our seas, dreadful NHS waiting lists, a housing crisis and what politicians are calling a ‘cost of living crisis’. It’s not. It’s a cost of inequality crisis. Made by poor policies and funding decisions serving a few, not the community. It’s not good enough. It’s time to stand up for a tomorrow that we can all benefit from. Green policies are about fairness for all. From defending the NHS from privatisation – making sure everyone has access to free healthcare; increasing universal credit and the minimum wage; to pushing for water companies to be brought back into public control to stop the sewage being dumped in our seas and rivers – a vote for me is a vote for Real Hope. Real Change. It’s time to vote Green. It’s time to vote for Sonya Mallin.”

Edmund Rooke (Reform UK): My name is Eddy Rooke and I am the prospective parliamentary candidate for Reform UK for Worthing West. I am a passionate believer in a complete and full-blooded Brexit. The UK should be and remain an independent sovereign nation. I believe the U.K. should be self-sufficient in all essential goods and services. In practice this includes exploiting to the full all our natural resources such as coal, shale gas and North Sea oil. As a sovereign nation, we should not be forced to accept the jurisdiction of any foreign courts. I believe the boats arriving illegally from France (a safe EU country) should be sent straight back. As for legal immigration, I believe in ‘net zero’. One in, one out. Selecting only those with skills beneficial to this country. I believe in low taxes, two unchangeable biological sexes, no political or sexual indoctrination in schools, colleges or universities, no wokery, and law and order. Basically everything old-school Tories used to believe in, but clearly don’t now. If, like me, you think that the Tories have betrayed us for the past 14 years, but you can’t stomach voting for Starmer’s Labour, then I’m your man. Vote for me. Vote for Reform UK.”

Kathryn Attwood (Independent): Kathryn Attwood is part of a ‘network of independent candidates’, Vote Life. The group did not respond to approaches by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.