General Election 2017: Meet your Labour Party candidate

Next in our series of interviews with the election candidates of Norwich South is the Labour Party’s Clive Lewis. Currently the MP for Norwich South, Clive is running for re-election. He was member of the Shadow Cabinet for the State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as well as Shadow Defence Minister. He has worked as a BBC news reporter before becoming the BBC eastern region’s chief political reporter and even did a tour in Afghanistan as a reservist infantry officer.

Why should students vote for the Labour party in this coming general election?

The difference between a Labour government and a Tory government is worth tens of thousands of pounds to current and future students. If Labour wins on June 8th, that means the end of tuition fees for all domestic students from the autumn term this year and we will bring back maintenance grants too.

Contrast that with the Tories under whom tuition fees have soared from £3000 to £9000 with the prospect of fees commonly reaching £12,000 per year if they get back in.

Students in Norwich need to know that in this constituency there are only two possible outcomes on June 8^th – a Labour MP or a Tory. Recent polling analysis of Norwich South showed the Tories only a few points behind Labour with the other parties so far behind that they stand no chance of beating the Tories themselves. A vote for the Lib Dems or the Green Party here can only help the Tories.

He is often seen at events on campus.

Labour have talked about rent controls to help young people get on the property ladder, does the Labour party have particular plans to help with the cost of student  accommodation which has continued to rise in recent years?

Labour’s cap on rent rises in the private sector will benefit all of the thousands of students living off campus in Norwich. As a former NUS vice president, I understand the financial pressures of all kinds that students face and how so many of those are barriers to the widest possible participation in education. The high cost of university accommodation is one of those pressures and I will support efforts to make sure this issue is addressed.

So many of the problems students face are ultimately the result of universities trying to find new sources of revenue to offset savage general cuts to higher education. Those cuts are not an economic necessity as the Tories would have you believe. They are a political choice. Labour’s choice is to fund education properly. The Tories have chosen instead to give the largest corporations and the super rich enormous tax cuts approaching £80 billion per year – a figure almost equivalent to what we spend on the entire education system.

University can be a particularly stressful time for students, I’m sure you’ve heard that UEA will be cutting counselling courses leading to a loss of 1000 counselling hours. How will you and the wider Labour party aim to help students suffering with mental health problems?

Yes, I know about the counselling course cuts and have already met with people concerned about that with a view to taking action on this issue.

I’ve supported the local Campaign to Defend Mental Health Services for over five years since they first raised the alarm about increasing numbers of service users dying and the deterioration on local mental health services. I’ve raised these issues in Parliament – holding the local mental health trust and government to account on their failures. Quite simply, we wouldn’t accept it if at the N&N there we no beds for extremely unwell people and patients were dying more often. That’s what’s happening in local – and national – mental health services and it’s scandalous.

Mental health isn’t just about helping people when they become unwell – it’s also about doing everything you can to keep people well. That’s why my party is committed to making sure services are integrated into, available and fully accessible in setting as diverse as places of education, local community hubs and workplaces.

Recently the Liberal Democrats pledged to decriminalise and regulate the sale of Cannabis, does the Labour party have any particular stance on this or is it simply something the party is not looking to address anytime soon?

Official Labour Party policy is not in support of decriminalisation. My personal view is that we need to make policy on this based on independent scientific evidence. We need to seriously consider the likely consequences – positive and negative – of changing the law and make a sober analysis of the risks and benefits of doing so for individuals and society as a whole.

Many students voted remain in the Brexit referendum, what will the Labour party do for those students?

When the government sought Parliament’s permission to start the process of leaving the EU by triggering Article 50, I voted against. As the policy of my party was to vote in favour, that meant I had to resign from my position as Shadow Minister for Business. In all good conscience, I simply couldn’t bring myself to vote for something that went so clearly against the wishes of my constituents – who voted 60:40 to Remain – and the interests of the people in our city.

Since the Referendum last June it has become apparent that the Tories will pursue their own Hard Brexit no matter what the consequences for local jobs and for the protection of employees and the environment. So I am in favour of another public vote on whatever final deal the prime minister of the day comes back with from Europe.

This isn’t about ‘re-running’ the EU referendum – that decision has been made. But the people need to be able decide if the government’s version of Brexit is the one they want – it can’t just be the decision of one prime minister and one party. With Theresa May saying she’d be happy with no deal at all, we need a way of pulling back from the abyss if that’s what the final outcome is.

Whatever happens at the General Election, we need the maximum number of MPs in Parliament who will make the case for a deal that benefits us rather than harms us. Here in Norwich South, the choice is between me and what I stand for on Brexit and a Tory MP who, if the Conservatives win, will just loyally rubber stamp Theresa May’s decisions.

Again on the subject of Brexit, many universities have lots of students from the EU. What would you want to say to those students? 

I know that the EU referendum and some of the incidents of bigotry reported soon afterwards made a lot of people from abroad feel unwelcome here. The stats show that the number of people from outside the UK applying to work in our hospitals has fallen. The same goes for farm work and caring for our older people.

I am deeply saddened by that. But I also know that the British people as a whole aren’t represented by the closed-minded views of a vocal minority. Polling has shown that overwhelming majority of British people want people from abroad to carry on caring for our older people and working in our hospitals. We as a nation think it’s wrong to include overseas students in specious targets for immigration.

And as I’m sure you’ve discovered for yourselves, Norwich is a special kind of place that likes to do things differently. As ever you’ll find a warm welcome in our city and I hope you’ll continue to make the most of the opportunities offered by some of the best academic institutions in the country.

Clive canvassing with his wife.

Labour is a very popular party for students, but for those that haven’t made up they’re mind how they’ll vote what do you think is the best way for Labour students to convince them? 

I think we need to go a step or two back on that question. The first thing I would implore students and young people to do is make use of their vote – no matter who you’re voting for.

A recent poll revealed that while almost 80% of people over 65 say they are going to vote, only 57% of younger people are planning to. As it stands, your generation’s future is being almost wholly decided by a completely different generation with very different priorities to you.

But you can do something about and get your voice heard. Use your vote on June 8th.

Hand on heart, I honestly believe that on all of the issues most important to students and young people, that my party has the best vision and policies for your futures. You already know we’d get rid of tuition fees and we’d do the same with unpaid internships. When you finish university our plans for a network of regional investment banks and to shift our economy from a model of short term profit maximization to longer term investment will increase the number of well paid, high-skill, secure jobs that graduates need.

But above all, there’s really no meaningful discussion of a future for any of us which leaves out Climate Change. You can either have the Tories who’ve abandoned any pretence to serious action and shown their contempt for this issue by scrapping the Labour initiated Department for Climate Change. Or you can have Labour and our commitment to putting the battle against Climate Change front and centre of everything we do.

Clive showing support to Muslim students after the recent UEA controversy with Muslim student’s prayer facilities.

Finally, what do you feel is the particular significance of this election for young people?

Whatever the outcome on June 8^th, this really has to be the election where young people start to realise the power they have through the ballot box and by organising together to get their voices heard. We need a change so badly and it’ll take more than just the back and forth of conventional party politics to get it. Your future could be in your hands if you have the courage to reach out and touch it.