General Election 2024: Residents urge political parties to focus on climate change and the economy

  • Voters in Selkirk react to PM Rishi Sunak's General Election announcement.

Residents in the Scottish Borders have been sharing what key priorities political parties should be considering ahead of the next General Election - including a focus on the economy, and on climate change.

Sue Briggs, of The General Store, wants to see more focus on the link between large companies, the climate crisis and reducing waste.

"I'd actually like to see a policy level, the government thinking about how to make the link between things like repairing stuff and climate change.

"We know that landfill contributes to climate change, but maybe people don't make the link between being able to get their possessions repaired and personally doing something about the climate problem," she said.

Sue Briggs runs a repair shop in Selkirk, which helps reduce the amount of items sent to landfill. Credit: ITV Border

Ms Briggs said: "I'd like them to work on making that link clearer for people. I would like the next UK government to take seriously this idea of your right to repair.

"So what I mean by that is I would like them to put pressure on big manufacturers in particular to provide spare parts to make it possible to get into things and fix them, to give instructions on how to do because at the moment there's not enough of that going on and too much landfill."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the announcement of a general election on Wednesday 22 May - meaning MPs have only six weeks on the campaign trail.

The seat for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk has been held by John Lamont, a Conservative MP since June 2017.

Sophie Hill, a voter in Selkirk, told ITV Border: "I think climate change and action and proper policies on climate change will be highly important this election and especially for the younger people.

"I think the younger people now understand that climate change is really going to affect their future and their children's future in a way that hasn't really been engaged with before."

The last general election took place on 12 December 2019, where seven Conservative MPs and one Liberal Democrat MP were elected across the ITV Border region.

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