The Press has offered parliamentary candidates the chance to have a say ahead of the General Election. Here Rachael Maskell, York Central candidate for the Labour Party, sets her stall out.

SINCE 2015, when I was first elected to represent York Central, I have put the people of York first.

I have dealt with over 30,000 cases helping people with the problems they face and spoken in 1100 debates in Parliament.

I have campaigned on the issues that matter to York and its local people. It has been an honour to do this but I feel that my work as an MP for this great city has only just begun.

There is so much more I want to do to maximise the opportunity of everyone who lives and works in York.

Services need to be fixed, infrastructure needs to be put in place, and people need to be cared for the way that any decent society would support people at their most vulnerable moments.

Our city and our country are so unequal, so unfair, and things aren’t working the way they should.

People are not getting the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We need to get the basics right – jobs, health, housing and the environment. Labour has the solutions to this.

We live in an amazing city, full of potential.

But too many things are not working as they should.

Instead of more and more luxury apartments being built in York, we need housing you can afford, built by the Council, to rent or buy.

Under Labour, we will have eco-homes – good for families, communities and the environment.

Labour will end homelessness in the city and provide the support that people need to live independently.

I worked for the NHS for 20 years and its heartbreaking to see the problems it is facing today. It should be properly staffed and you should be able to see your GP when you’re unwell. We need to end the way care is rationed and companies profit from our precious health service. We need a mental health service that meets the needs of everyone in York. Its scandalous that at a time when it’s most needed I am fighting the closure of our GP-led mental health services and having to explain why we need a city-wide mental health service.

Care should be there when we need it too. I am pleased that Labour is guaranteeing free personal care, to end the uncertainty and worry facing many disabled and older people in the City.

Everyone deserves the dignity of a secure, properly paid job.

But the short- term and zero-hour contracts along with low wages only benefits the bosses, not the workers who are struggling to find a home and live in their own city.

I am taking every opportunity to build a consensus for more economic space. We should be planning for the next generation of jobs in York, part of the Green New Deal.

York Central is the ideal location.

The floods are a sharp reminder of how we have to transform the way we live our lives and respect our fragile environment.

I have written much of Labour’s transport policy, to cut air pollution and secure clean and green public transport.

I came into politics to fight injustice, and when over 4 million children, that’s nine in every class of 30, and over 2 million older people, along with so many others are living in poverty, then I am determined to rebuild our nation in a way that is fair for everyone.

A decade of Tory and Liberal Democrat austerity cuts must come to an end.

Politics doesn’t have to be the way it is.

Myself and the Labour Party believe it can change.

I have great hope that together we can build a city that works for all of us and a country that everyone is proud of.

Let us unite behind Labour, the party that brings real hope; the party that brings real change.