The new Labour candidate for Melksham and Devizes has said that the “whole country and the constituency is crying out for change.”

Kerry Postlewhite will be standing in this year’s general election and hoping to swing voters over to Labour.

She said: “I'm standing now because I'm angry about what the last 14 years of Conservative government has meant to people's lives across the country and in the Melksham and Devizes constituency.”

After growing up in Norton-Radstock, Ms Postlewhite described life as having taken her in “all sorts of different directions”, from a career in local government in London, working with the European parliament in Brussels and volunteering on educational programs in Zambia, to becoming involved in animal welfare after moving back to the UK in 2013.

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Now fully dedicated to her campaign in Melksham and Devizes, the candidate explained that she wants to “put all of that experience and learning into the service of the people".

According to Ms Postlewhite, her priorities would be “getting stability and certainty back into the economy”, cutting down NHS waiting lists and getting people face-to-face GP and dentist appointments, giving residents security within their work and communities, and setting up mental health hubs.

She said that a need for town centre regeneration, a lack of police presence and the cost of living crisis remain real issues for many across the constituency.

She added: “We’re being told by the government that things are getting better, it’s on the up, but that’s not what people are telling us.

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“A lot of the conversations that we’ve been having with people have been about things like the continued increase in their monthly mortgage repayments which make a huge difference to the amount of money that people have in their pockets.”

She said she wants to open up conversations with those who had been having a “tough time” over the last few years, such as farmers and self-employed workers.

She claimed that local election results have shown that “every community wants to turn a new page, every community wants to start a new chapter, everywhere has had enough".


She concluded: “I would be a very active MP and I would be a very community-based MP.

“My time would obviously be focused on the constituency and not on being responsible for a government department.”