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Local campaigner James Allen has been selected as Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for the Rochford & Southend East Constituency.  He has been employed in both the public and the private sectors, currently he works on major railway infrastructure projects in the UK.

Mr Allen has lived in the constituency for over thirty years, before that he had experience living overseas in California and Hawaii. He told the Echo "Seeing the US health care system at first hand makes you really appreciate our NHS. However, just a couple of years after clapping NHS staff during covid, we now have multiple strikes and a big problem retaining our heroic medical staff. We must ensure they stay in the NHS and in order to do that the government must pay them internationally competitive salaries. It is the only way we have to keep them doing the jobs we so desperately need. Employing agency staff is very costly and stripping third world countries of their medics is totally unethical."

Mr Allen told the Echo "Our Conservative government have staggered from one disaster to another in recent years. In the process they have disposed of four of their own Prime Ministers in just seven years. While the Conservatives have been obsessed with their internal infighting, the country has suffered one calamity after another. Labour seem to be 'risk averse', their leader says if elected they will continue Conservative policies. As the Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson I intend to call out those government failures and hold their local MPs to account. The Lib Dems are already a force in local politics with many Councillors elected to Rochford District Council. Rochford has returned no Labour Councillors for many years. We will challenge the Tories now and at the next general election."

Mr Allen has experience of serving in local government and is familiar with residents concerns about the consequences of over development, "The Conservative government has been exerting great pressure on local authorities to allow building in often inappropriate places in the South East.  This led to the terrible decision to grant planning permission for hundreds of houses on land prone to flooding in Shoebury. Developers are seriously considering raising the land levels of that flood plain with huge amounts of earth carried by eighty five thousand giant truck movements through Southend, Thorpe Bay and Shoebury. The whole thing has become a tragic fiasco. MPs cannot just wash their hands of this potential catastrophe, local people deserve better. I will be challenging this every step of the way."

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