Northern Lights: I’ve had a number of experiences, both positive and negative as a politician

I didn’t join the Labour Party with a plan to stand for office and I still shirk at the idea of calling myself a politician.

With public trust in politicians at record lows perhaps it’s not surprising that my self-image might conflict with my own political practice.

But I am a politician, and have been for two years.

In that time I’ve had a number of experiences, both positive and negative, that I wouldn’t have expected when standing for election back in 2022.

There have been some real success stories:

- The introduction of a free green city centre circular bus;

- The return of the trams to public control;

- The creation of a new city centre park;

- Sheffield consistently being rated the best place to start up a business;

- Heart of the City II really coming into its own (if you haven’t checked it out you really must!).

There have also been some real negatives.

In particular the feeling that everything we can do is never going to be enough.

As a case in point: the war against Gaza and the overwhelming sense of powerlessness to stop it.

I have consistently called for a ceasefire, the return of all hostages and political prisoners, and a cease to arms sales.

I’m glad that the council voted to support this back in November, and that Parliament has now done the same.

But the powerlessness comes from all of that not being enough to actually stop the war.

I often feel a level of despair when acting as a councillor.

Someone once said to me that working in local government is so frustrating because the needs are overwhelming and the tools are inefficient. And it’s true; we can’t do enough.

We don’t have the funding needed for a city of this size, and lack appropriate powers to affect all of the issues we would want to.

Our budgets have been cut in half since 2010, while at the same time – because of inflation – the real cost of delivering services goes up.

Council services are estimated to cost 29 per cent more in real-terms in 2024/25 than they did in 2021/22.

Even when council tax ‘increases’, it goes up by less than the rate of inflation.

We’re trying to do more with less funding.

And so we’re forced to ringfence essential services, to support hardworking Sheffielders and protect the most vulnerable.

This year we’ve put millions into frontline cost-of-living support and also free school meal vouchers, so no child goes hungry outside of term-time.

The powerlessness comes, again, from the knowledge that that’s not enough.

It shouldn’t have to be this way.

Austerity was and is a political choice.

The decade of cuts inflicted upon our city since 2010 came from the Tory and Liberal Democrat government, which took £858 in services from each Sheffield household.

Council funding provides for people’s social care packages, children’s services, business support, and services for our parks and libraries.

Their nationwide decline has added billions in extra costs for the NHS, police, education and justice services, as well as adding strain to charities that have to help pick up the pieces.

I got into politics to see big structural changes.

But sadly the problems we face in Sheffield can’t be dealt with in Sheffield alone.

We need a Labour Government to reverse 14 years of Conservative decline and fix our broken economy.

And at the same time we need a fair deal for local government funding, to ensure we can once again deliver for our communities.

When Rishi Sunak finally calls a General Election, I’ll be working hard to help deliver a Labour victory.

The hard work, to rebuild after 14 years of decay, begins afterwards.