MedwayFirst - Background
I moved to St Mary’s Island in 2000 and then to Hempstead in 2007. My wife and I have brought up our three children in Medway. I’ve served my community on Medway Council, I’m Chair of Trustees of a Primary School Trust with four schools in Medway, and I started my own business from my back garden in 2007. I didn’t get into any of that for a political party. I did it because I care about Medway, its people and its businesses, and because I’ve made Medway my home.
Today I want to tell you about something new, and why I believe it matters more now than at any point in my time in public life.
Until yesterday, Medway Council was due to disappear in April 2028, replaced by one big new council covering Medway, Dartford and Gravesham. On Monday the Government paused that plan and put it under review. Nothing has been cancelled. Ministers have been clear that they still mean to simplify local government, and they have confirmed that the elections on 6 May 2027 go ahead on Medway’s existing boundaries.
Read that again, because it matters. Medway’s future is now genuinely undecided, and it will be decided by people who have never lived here. Whatever Whitehall settles on, the risk is the same one I have watched for years. Medway gets quietly overlooked, outspent and concreted over. I’m not prepared to let that happen.
So, I’m starting Medway First. A new local team, run by Medway residents, for Medway residents.
I want to be straight with you about how I got here. I gave years of my public life to a national party. As a Medway Councillor, I became disillusioned with the lack of progress we’ve made as a Council. Decisions made by the previous Conservative and the current Labour administrations have not improved life for Medway residents. So, I’ve left. I made that decision before Monday’s announcement, not because of it. My values haven’t changed. Who I answer to has. From now on, that’s you, not a party in London.
Because that’s the real choice coming in 2027. On one side, Labour and the Conservatives, who have each had their turn and let Medway down. On the other, Reform UK, a national protest movement with no policies and no ideas for making Medway better. And behind all three of them, a Government that has just put Medway’s own future on hold with no date for a decision.
Medway First offers a simple idea instead. Local people, standing up for Medway. Pride in our place. Care with your money. Decisions made by people who live here and will still be your neighbours long after polling day. And a promise at the heart of everything we do: every Medway First candidate will live in or close to the community they represent. That’s a higher standard than the law requires, and it’s the whole point of who we are.
We exist to defend Medway — wherever the decisions about our future are made. That is truer this week than it was last week, because more of those decisions have just moved further away from us. It gives us three aims.
First, to win for Medway in 2027. The Government has confirmed that next May’s elections are fought on Medway’s existing boundaries, so this is a straight fight for Medway Council, ward by ward, on ground we already know. A strong team of local people can win here, so that whoever ends up running Medway, and whatever Whitehall finally decides to do with us, Medway has a united voice and the numbers to defend our corner. The Councillors we elect next May will run Medway — and they will be the ones in the room when reorganisation comes back.
Second, to defend Medway as devolution comes to Kent. When the Government creates a Mayor for the county, the big parties will move to divide the spoils between them. Medway First will be there to make sure Medway is never carved up — that we have a strong voice at that top table, not an afterthought once the deals are done.
Third, to defend Medway in the House of Commons. In time, standing in each of Medway’s three seats, so that Medway is spoken for in Westminster by people who answer to Medway and not to head office.
This is not a one-off protest. It’s the start of something built to last.
But I can’t do it alone, and I don’t intend to. If you’ve ever looked at how this place is run and thought “I could do better than that”, you probably can, and I want to hear from you. I am looking for candidates from every part of Medway. People with local roots and common sense, skilled and experienced in their own field, who’ll put their community before any party line. You don’t need to be a politician. You need to care about Medway.
And because next May is now fought on the wards we already have, this is a real conversation rather than a hypothetical one. I can tell you exactly which ward you would be standing in, who holds it, and how it voted last time. Come and talk to me and I’ll show you the numbers.
If you are reading this statement, you are already interested. Come and stand with me. And if you can’t stand but you share the goal, then back us, join us, and help us build something Medway can be proud of.
Medway’s future is about to be decided. Let’s make sure Medway has a say.
Think Local. Vote Local. Medway First.
Medway First’s website is up and running visit at medwayfirst.org.uk
