Northfield Labor MP pledges support for SEND – ‘I wouldn’t be here without it’

Northfield Labor general election candidate Laurence Turner has pledged to make provision for special needs a top priority after revealing his own journey from ‘SENDING the baby’ to being on the brink of a seat in Parliament. Turner, 36, a new father, is a newcomer to the constituency, but not to the town where his mother was born and raised and where he has extended family ties.

He hopes to convince voters to back him and the Labor party to “bring hope back”. Polls suggest the seat, currently held by Conservative Gary Sambrook, will turn red on July 4.

Turner was parachuted into the constituency earlier this month after the current Labor candidate, Alex Aitken, was forced to drop out for personal reasons. Turner is the son of parents who met working as teachers in an inner-city school in Nottingham. His mother was born and raised in Sparkhill and King’s Heath.

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In his first BirminghamLive interview, Turner described himself as a “SEND kid” as a result of dyspraxia, a co-ordination disorder that affects physical movement and coordination. Things like handwriting, tying shoelaces, buttoning, riding a bike, driving all add up to a challenge, he explained. It meant he was rejected from his secondary school and discouraged from staying on for A-levels.

“We’re calling it now. I was seen as not fitting in well with the school, many SEND students experience that,” he said. He left school and luckily found one “more inclusive and supportive”, going on to get a degree from Oxford.

“One of the things I want to do in Parliament, as an MP, is to fight for the reform of a system that is broken. Too many parents, children, teachers and other school staff are locked in confrontation over access to the provision that children need. I know from my own experience how valuable those support services can be.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today without them. I also know the stigma that can be associated with it, as well as the prejudice and negative feelings that arise when there is no support. It is an area where national and local politics. services depend on each other so we need to get that change, it will be a top priority if I am elected as an MP.” He is a trustee of the Dyspraxia Foundation.

“We lose sight that for most people the differences are lifelong, so we need to have support in the community as well.” He added: “Representation matters. It mattered to me when I first heard people talk about living with my differences. I think there is a responsibility…to be seen and to send a message to kids and families who might have lower expectations. than it should be… about what you can achieve.”

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Northfield is one of the tightest margins in the country after the 2019 election. Conservative Gary Sambrook took the seat with a majority of 1,640, ending 27 years as a Labor incumbent.

“The campaign itself is intense, as it should be during a general election, and I’m talking to people every day about very serious challenges, their private lives and issues and their community. There’s a huge amount to do here,” Turner said.

“It’s clear that people are fed up with the direction the country has gone and they want to see the changes in their local area that I’m committed to delivering.” He plans to bring his trade union role and passion, focusing on improving the poverty wage and conditions for low-paid workers, particularly women in care and support roles in the public sector, to his constituency role.

He said he offered residents a “different political future” than Tory Gary Sambrook, who national polls predict will lose the seat. Asked how he would differ from Sambrook, he said: “Gary is an effective campaigner on Facebook but he doesn’t have an open constituency office where people can come in and meet a dedicated team of social workers, I want residents to get the best services.

“That’s something I would change – to have a more visible presence in the community and also be a more active member of Parliament. There will be more regular updates through newsletters, but also by being out in the community more often. Hear people saying sometimes we only see politicians knocking on their doors when there are elections – we won’t be like that”.

He added: “Gary has only spoken four times in Parliament in the last six months. And when it comes to making the case for investment in our communities, infrastructure and grants, the bid to regenerate Northfield High Street has been rejected. start on the ground and raise issues much more often and have a voice in shaping government priorities”.

Its key commitments include: