South Cambridgeshire's Lib Dem Candidate, Pippa Heylings backs new manifesto with NHS and the environment at its heart

The Liberal Democrats have launched their General Election manifesto and outlined a plan to save health and care services. The manifesto offers a bold and fully costed £9bn plan to tackle the health and care crisis. 

The bold plan to save the country’s health services includes:

• Giving everyone the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it.
• Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care, ending DIY dentistry and ‘dental deserts’.
• Boost cancer survival rates and introduce a guarantee for 100% of patients to start treatment for cancer within 62 days from urgent referral.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto will also include a plan to overhaul the water industry and tackle sewage pollution, to assign a dedicated mental health professional in every primary and secondary school, and to ensure that there is a return to community policing with policies including a new burglary response guaranteed to tackle unsolved crimes.  

Pippa Heylings, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate said: 

“I am absolutely delighted with our Liberal Democrat Manifesto and was privileged to be at the launch event alongside Ed Davey. I am proud of our manifesto pledge to support people through the cost of living crisis, fight for both conditions for our NHS staff and patients’ ability to access the NHS, and crucially, for me, ensure that both carers and those in need of care receive a Fair deal.

“We have ambitious solutions to tackle the key problems facing our country, and we have ensured that they are fully costed and funded through a restructuring of our tax system and closing loopholes for tax avoidance. We will reverse the Conservatives’ tax cuts on big banks and ensure that super-profitable Oil and Gas companies pay their fair share through a properly implemented Windfall Tax. During a cost of living crisis, the tax burden cannot land on the shoulders of those struggling, it must be shifted to those companies that can afford it.

“Our manifesto has bold and costed commitments to tackle the climate crisis and to Double Nature. We are the only major party committed not only to an ambitious Net Zero target to tackle climate change, but also to recognising the importance of protecting and restoring Nature.

“I know how important our local natural environment is to the people of South Cambridgeshire, and it’s a sentiment I share wholeheartedly because we are one of the most nature-depleted areas in the country. That’s why I pushed for nature to be at the centre of our Party’s green policies. Through our ambitious plans to ‘double nature’ by 2050, to plant at least 60 million new trees a year, and to give proper ‘teeth’ and resources to the Environmental Protection Agency - we will protect and restore our green spaces and wild habitats.

“South Cambridgeshire, and this country, needs a Fair Deal. The people of South Cambridgeshire are fed up with being taken for granted by the Conservative Party. And our manifesto reinforces the fact that it is the Liberal Democrats who are listening to the concerns of local people.

“People desperately want change, from fixing our health and care services to restoring Nature, to a return to effective community policing, the Liberal Democrats have a plan to make our community a better place. 

“The Liberal Democrats are fighting for local people, and I am fighting to bring about the change our community needs.” 

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