THE four candidates for the South West Wiltshire seat in the General Election are to go head-to-head at parliamentary hustings in Warminster.

The are Andrew William Murrison (Conservative Party), Ellen Sophie Nicholson (Liberal Democrats), Julie Elizabeth Phillips (Green Party), Emily Pomroy-Smith (Labour Party).

Responding to Labour's plans to part-nationalise BT, Sam Gyimah, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said:

"It might be a Christmas election, but this is getting silly. Another day, another unaffordable item on the wish list.

"Wasting billions of taxpayer funds to nationalise BT, won't solve the connectivity issues faced by so many of our rural communities. The Labour plan is less open-reach, more overreach.

"Liberal Democrat's recognise the need for every community to have high quality internet access. We will take bold steps to ensure local communities can channel investment into priority digital infrastructure projects. We will ensure companies are held to account in delivering on universal service obligations, and that regulation is fit for purpose as technology evolves.

"This is part of the Liberal Democrats bold plan for a brighter, better-connected future."

Today Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor and Deputy Leader Ed Davey will be making his General Election keynote speech in Leeds.

The former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will announce a Liberal Democrat government would spend and invest an extra £100 billion of public finance on tackling the climate emergency and environmental preservation.

Ed Davey will also use his speech to attack the Government's fantasy plans for the economy and further outline how the Remain bonus will be invested.

Ed Davey is expected to say:

On the Government's fantasy economics

"The Conservatives have made our economy weak - much weaker than people realise. Too many people can't live a secure, happy and fulfilling life. And too many businesses face crippling uncertainty over their future.

"Yet so far, the economy debate in this election has been a debate between fantasies. Fantasies born of nostalgia for a British Imperial past. Competing with fantasies from a failed 1970s ideology."

On the £100 billion for climate and the environment

"A Liberal Democrat Government will jump-start an economy-wide programme to tackle the climate emergency: I can announce today that across a 5 year Parliament, Liberal Democrats would spend and invest an extra £100 billion of public finance on climate action and environmental preservation.

"This includes a new £10 billion Renewable Power Fund to leverage in over £100 billion of extra private climate investment. This will fast-track deployment of clean energy, to make Britain not just the world leader in offshore wind, but also the global number one in tidal power too. And we will invest £15 billion more to make every building in the country greener, with an emergency ten-year programme to save energy, end fuel poverty and cut heating bills."

On the Remain bonus



"That's why the election debate on the economy and public spending has Brexit at its heart. For the plain fact is, no party's economic plan is remotely credible unless it starts with stopping Brexit. With stopping Brexit as our number one economic policy, Liberal Democrats won't just grow the economy faster, but we'll generate a £50 billion Remain Bonus - to pay for our huge extra investment in schools and our policies to tackle inequality."

The Liberal Democrats unveiled the party's Plan for Equalities and Human Rights today . The plan is at the heart of the party's vision to build a brighter future for everyone.

The ambitious policies being revealed at a press conference today by Luciana Berger and Chuka Umunna include:

• tackling the rise in hate crimes by making them all aggravated offences
• providing funding for protective security measures to places of worship, schools and community centres that are vulnerable to hate crime and terror attacks
• complete the introduction of equal marriage
• reduce the overrepresentation of people from BAME backgrounds throughout the criminal justice system

Just 82.9% of patients arriving at A&E in Wiltshire were treated or admitted within four hours in October 2019, according to damning figures published today by NHS England.

This is well below the official target of 95% of patients attending A&E being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours, it's even below the Country's average of 83.6%.

Nationally, the 95% waiting target hasn't been met since July 2015. Only 83.6% of patients arriving at A&E across England were treated or admitted in four hours in October, the worst-ever performance since a target was introduced in 2004.

Liberal Democrat candidate for South West Wiltshire Ellen Nicholson said:

"It is shameful that patients in Wiltshire are being abandoned, be it waiting for hours for treatment in A&E or for months in pain for routine operations.

"These figures reveal the Conservatives' dismal record on the NHS. As a Registered Nurse I have seen the real impact of these cuts, for the past four years the Tories have utterly failed to invest properly in our health service, leaving local hospitals underfunded, overstretched and understaffed.

"Their extreme Brexit would make a dismal situation worse by driving away the EU nurses the NHS desperately needs.

"The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and build a brighter future. We will invest an extra £35 billion in our NHS through a penny on income tax and develop a national recruitment strategy to ensure we never again suffer shortages of nurses, doctors and other health professionals."

Responding to the announcement that Tesla will be investing in a new factory in Germany and not the UK due to Brexit uncertainty, Liberal Democrat Shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake:

"On Boris Johnson's first day in Downing Street, Dominic Cummings was pictured wearing a T- shirt picturing a company founded by Elon Musk. Now the very entrepreneur Cummings idolises has chosen not to invest in the UK because of the extreme Brexit being pursued by this government.

"Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is giving a speech at an electric car factory the very same day that we find out this industry is being damaged by his Brexit plans.

"You really couldn't make it up. This completely demolishes the Johnson and Cummings Brexit fantasy and shows their deluded plans are already costing the country vital investment and making us all poorer.

"The best way to stop this Brexit nightmare, kick Johnson and Cummings out of Number 10 and build a brighter future is to vote Liberal Democrat on December 12."

Ellen Nicholson

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South West Wiltshire

Ellen is proud to represent South West Wiltshire standing up for the open-hearted, community values shared by residents across the constituency.

A nurse by profession, she works in the university sector leading a programme that tackles primary care workforce development and healthcare. She is determined to fight the Brexit effect that is exacerbating our workforce shortages and impacting our local communities.

The Liberal Democrats have set out ambitious plans to tackle soaring levels of knife crime, by investing £500 million in youth services and adopting a public health approach to youth violence.

A Liberal Democrat government would create a £500 million ring-fenced fund for Local Authorities in England to spend on youth services. This would provide young people with positive, safe and healthy opportunities to prevent them being drawn into youth violence and gang-related crime. The party would also make local youth services a statutory service, protecting them from future cuts.

The Liberal Democrats would take a public health approach to tackling youth violence, modelled on the successful approach taken by Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit. This would involve identifying risk factors and treating them early on, with youth workers, police, teachers, health professionals and social services all working closely together to prevent young people falling into gangs and violence.

Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson said:

"We are in a knife crime epidemic, but successive Governments have taken the wrong approach to dealing with it.

"For 25 years, Conservative and Labour Governments have been competing to seem tough on crime, without doing enough to actually prevent crime.

"Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future for young people by investing £500 million a year in youth services and taking a public health approach to youth violence.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South West Wiltshire Ellen Nicholson said: From talking to various agencies, prison officers and probation service, I am pleased that Lib Dems are leading the way and taking a positive approach to tackling the issue of lack of youth services provision. Making local youth services a statutory service mitigates against future government policy decisions which so often impact our youth first.

"With a Liberal Democrat government, young people will have the support and opportunities they deserve, our communities will be stronger and people will feel safer."

Wiltshire Times reported that yesterday that Wiltshire Air Ambulance is today flying again after the Civil Aviation Authority awarded the charity its own operating licence. The Semington-based charity announced it has received its Air Operator Certificate after a 11-month wait.

This will enable the air ambulance return to Helicopter Emergency Medical Service immediately. The charity is now just one of four air ambulances who hold their own operators licence. David Philpott, the WAA chief executive said: "This has been a hard slog and has taken a lot longer than we anticipated - and a lot longer than it really should have.