As the former Superintendent of Hove Police, and Head of Sussex CID, Graham Cox says he has always stood up for residents in Hove and Portslade.
GRAHAM was born in Mile Oak, went to primary school in Portslade, and has lived in Hove most of his adult life. He says he is not a career politician – indeed if elected he would be the first MP who has served 30 years in the police. He says he has never been interested in standing for election anywhere other than in Hove and Portslade as he has only ever wanted to represent the community he is proud to call home.
Graham believes with his experience in the Police, he is the ideal choice to stand up for residents’ concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour which he says people raise with him every day on the doorstep. As a local councillor, he shares people’s frustration with the state of Hove and Portslade and believes we need to clean up our towns!
Graham says: “All my life I have been committed to public service and, if elected as your MP in May, I will continue my track record by fighting for more school places, a new King Alfred, and an expansion of GP and other services at the excellent Hove Polyclinic.”
Graham’s position on the Stonewall Equality Manifesto: To download Manifesto, click here:
“Stonewall have done excellent work over the years and I am pleased to see that they have released their Equality Manifesto for the general election to ensure that work continues. I am proud to support their Manifesto and the four main pillars:
Statutory PSHE and Sex and Relationships Education for primary and secondary schools in England: It is so important that teachers are equipped with the right skills to teach children about hate crime, consent and abuse, whilst encouraging knowledge of all the different forms the family can take. We are lucky to live in such a diverse city but more work needs to be done here and across the country to stamp out bullying at a young age and encourage people to be comfortable with their identity.
Combatting homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime: As the former Superintendent of Hove Police – and Chief Superintendent of Sussex CID – it is unsurprising that I think we need to work hard to deal with hate crimes. We need to send a clear message that such crimes are unacceptable, they need to be reported, and the offenders need to understand why they are unacceptable. As a police officer I dealt with such incidents first-hand (including tragically two murders of local gay men) and I saw how such bullying and hate crimes can have a really damaging impact on individuals’ wellbeing. We need to stamp it out, and I support any initiatives that do so.
International Aid: As readers are no doubt aware, this Government has been the first in history to reach the UN commitment to spending 0.7% of GDP on international aid. Not only does international aid enable us to help communities around the world, demonstrating what a caring country we are, but it is also a form of “soft power”. Countries that persecute or discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation should not receive a penny piece of British taxpayers’ money. I fully support using money within the international aid budget to help LGBT communities achieve change and representation within their countries.
Reviewing the laws affecting trans people: It is no business of the Government, the Council or the employer to tell anyone what gender they are: the best person to decide your gender is you. We need to abolish all in-built biases in the system as well as looking at the 10-year-old Gender Recognition Act.”
Graham’s position on the future Commissioning of Health Services and how that affects the Sussex Beacon:
“I support the commissioning of health services so long as it delivers good patient outcomes. Currently just 5.8% of the NHS budget goes to private organisations (including charities) compared to 4.8% when Labour left office. There are some excellent charities in this city, delivering outstanding services better than the Council or the Government, that deserve our support: For example, Mankind offers counselling services to male survivors of sexual abuse, whilst Sussex Beacon supports those living with HIV. I do not think that we should allow a dogmatic approach to the NHS budget to get in the way of helping people.”
For a full list of candidates standing in Hove and Portslade, click here: