SOUTH Somerset's election candidates want your vote.

Here we meet Marcus Fysh, prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservative party.

He said:

We need this election to restore trust in the politics of this country and move forward. We have had three and a half years of opposition MPs blocking not just Brexit and the deal Boris Johnson has secured with the support of all Conservatives, but also the progress we could be making in other areas such as adult social care and levelling up opportunities across the whole country.

I cannot wait to be home in Somerset for a few weeks talking to people about the issues that matter our communities.

As a father, I know how important a good education is to our children. My wife teaches and I have two young children, so education is something I think about a lot. 50 of our local schools are benefitting from our investment in primary and secondary education in England in each of the next three years.

The biggest increases are going to the schools that need it most – In our communities this will mean an average per pupil funding of £4,611 in our primary schools and £5,213 in secondary school. - a really big uplift for our schools - and I am really pleased to see it also includes increased funding for Special Educational Needs.

Our 5-year funding plan for the NHS is delivering an extra £33.9billion a year with additional boosts for key areas such as mental health. I helped secure an extra £25million a year for the Hospice sector which I hope can be a part of reversing the closure of St Margaret’s. We must ensure that we look at the funding for social care, hospice and end of life care together in order that our communities are best served. The rural nature of South Somerset makes it even more essential that these services are well funded as they are a lifeline for many.

One of my first actions as an MP was to lobby to preserve funding for our Police and in addition to keeping Yeovil Police Station open, Avon and Somerset are new recruiting an extra 137 new officers as a start for our plan to get 20,000 more on the streets across the country.

I was delighted when it was announced that Chard will be part of the Future High Streets Fund that I lobbied for, and which Yeovil is still in the running for too. Our local High Streets are essential to our communities and I will continue to campaign to help them thrive and to bring opportunities to our area.

This has all been achieved during a challenging time in politics. In Labour and the Lib Dems we have two deeply negative opposition parties offering nothing but a lack of confidence in our great nation. This election will be a vote for hope for the future; we can get Brexit done, have a good fruitful relationship with our EU neighbours and increase our global outlook whilst making sure not a single street or community here gets left behind.