St Ives: Housing, fishing and climate change among top priorities for West Cornish voters
Improvements to housing, fishing and climate change are the top priorities for voters in the St Ives constituency of West Cornwall, parliamentary candidates say.
The constituency covers the majority of West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and was the last place in the UK to declare a result in the 2019 election because of poor weather conditions disrupting votes from the islands.
Green Party Candidate Ian Flindall farms cattle and pigs near Moorvah. He says the realities of climate change are affecting farmers more severely.
"When I started in the Green Party we talked about (climate change) affecting our children's children's children. Well, blow me down here I am at 70, and it's affecting me.
"We've had eight named storms in here, and it's been the wettest winter ever. Farmers all over the country are struggling to get their crops in the ground.
"Unless we address this issue of pretty rapidly we're going to be in trouble."
Constituents living in the area will have more candidates to choose from than anywhere else in the Duchy but, according to polls, the Lib Dems are on course to beat all of their opposition.
Former Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George says he's "prepared to go back into politics" in his bid to regain the St Ives seat, which he fought for and lost for the past two general elections.
Andrew George held the St Ives constituency from 1997 until 2015, but has been unsuccessful since. He says this time it will be different.
The seat is one of the Liberal Democrats’ main targets, needing just 4.9 percentage points to change hands.
"I've passed the insanity test," he told ITV News. "I'm prepared to go back into politics.
"To see people suffer in the way that they have as a result of widening inequality and declining public services.
"I'm very committed to doing what I can in public life to both protect and support local people."
The Conservative candidate Derek Thomas won the seat in 2015 and has held it ever since, but the Tories are defending a notional majority at this election of just 5,227.
Mr Thomas says his record helps him to feel confident in returning as MP.
"Well, I've won three elections in a row. I think people recognise that actually having a strong advocate in a large political party in Westminster is of value.
"A positive record of action compared to a small minority party that can make noise and can actually promise lots of things, but really can't deliver that."
Labour is hoping it can make a bigger impression on the voters compared to the 2019 election where they won just 9% of the vote.
Candidate Dr Filson Ali criticises the previous two parties on their record in government on health and education.
In a statement on the St Ives Labour party website she tells prospective voters: “From the lack of NHS services to drastic cuts in local schools' budgets, the St Ives constituency has been poorly served by this government and the previous Lib/Dem Conservative coalition."As a doctor in general practice every day I see the consequences of 14 years of government failure and incompetence.
"This election we are offering the change that Cornwall and this constituency needs.”
Fishing is also a key concern for many voters with Newlyn's fishing port the second biggest in the UK.
Reform UK Candidate Giane Mortimer says coastal communities have been let down by promises from the previous government.
"We haven't taken back control of our fishing grounds as the Tories promised, and our Cornish coastal communities have been stabbed in the back yet again.
"Our fisherman, a very symbol of Cornwall were wantonly betrayed by the Tories in their haste to get any deal whatsoever and buckled under pressure from France.
"We need a complete reform of our Cornish fisheries."
A full list of candidates for the St Ives constituency:
Dr Filson Ali – Labour
Ian Flindall – Green
Andrew George – Liberal Democrats
John Harris – The Common People
Dave Laity – Independent
Giane Mortimer – Reform UK
Paul Nicholson – Liberal
Jason Saunders – UK Independence Party
Derek Thomas - Conservative