Suzy Stride

Suzy Stride, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Harlow

Suzy Stride is the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party in the UK constituency of Harlow.^[1]

Since being made the Labour Party candidate for Harlow, Stride has been vocal in her opposition to changes to youth service provision.^[2]

Early life and work

Suzy Stride was born in Bow, Tower Hamlets in East London on 6 March 1982. She grew up as one of a family of four; her father was a Council housing manager and is now Chief Executive of a local housing association, Poplar HARCA. Her mother is of Greek Cypriot parentage whose parents moved in the 1950s from Eptakomi in Cyprus.^[3][4] She attended Grey Coat Hospital in Westminster and then went on to read geography at Cambridge University.

She now lives in Harlow. Since graduation she has worked at her brother's charity, City Gateway, running youth crime prevention projects and programs to tackle youth unemployment.^[5]

She worked as a policy advisor for Baroness Janet Royall on the policy review What makes Politics Count for Young People^[6] conducting research into how to better engage young people in politics.^[5]

Political campaigning

Suzy Stride was selected as the Labour candidate for Harlow by way an all-female-shortlist. Although this mechanism was agreed in principle by both Labour and Conservatives in the 2010 election, only the Labour Party has used such selection tools in the UK. These type of shortlists were later found to be discriminatory and banned.^[7]

Since that time she has been active in supporting and promoting a number of campaigns for the local communities in Harlow.

Buses

Stride works with the "Movement for Change" group, a group in Harlow who gather together to make a positive change in their community. They organise and campaign to improve Harlow’s bus service.^[8]

Street lights

In late 2014 Essex County Council imposed a change to switch off many of the street lights in Harlow and other Essex communities. In general this move has not been welcomed by those communities affected. Harlow Labour Party^[9] and Suzy Stride, along with representatives from many other Essex communities have campaigned for the decision to be reversed.^[10] Harlow Council successfully negotiated a small rise in local Council Tax in order to fund the exact amount which Essex County Council claimed had been saved by turning Harlow street lights off. The move was opposed by the Conservative council members. Essex County Council have rejected the proposal, but as of March 2015 have agreed to reduce the 'lights out' period by one hour.

Children's Centres

Suzy Stride has been active in campaigning to save 'Sure Start' children's centres alongside many other community campaign groups including incumbent Member of Parliament Robert Halfon.^[11] Labour have warned that over 1,000 Sure Start centres will close within four years as a direct result of spending plans by the current Conservative Government.^[12]

Labour Party

Stride also worked on Labour’s policy review, What Makes Politics Count for Young People,^[6] that will feed into the next Labour Party Manifesto.

Controversy

In 2013, a motion of no-confidence in Suzy was tabled to be put to the Local Trade Union Council,^[13][14] based on her perceived failure to campaign on certain issues, this had led to her being dubbed by some union members as "Silent Suzy". The motion stated that the proposer was "deeply concerned that we have received far more support from Conservative MP Robert Halfon on the issues of trade union facility time and job losses at Comet and Tesco than we have from Suzy”.^[15] In response to this, Unite's politcal director Jenny Formby called the remarks "unmeasured and vicious" and defended Stride's perceived lack of silence saying she had done everything she was "able to given the time available for someone who works for a living".^[13][15]

References

External links

• Official website