Candidate Interview: Melanie Roberts (UKIP, Colne Valley)
Melanie Roberts, who is standing for UKIP in the Colne Valley, in front of her bookshop in Slaithwaite this morning.
UKIP’s general election candidate for Colne Valley, Melanie Roberts, has said she’s got “one big promise” for voters in the area. She used an interview with Saddleworth News to say, “If I’m elected, I will be there for the people, for whatever it is that they ask me to support.”
Mrs Roberts runs a bookshop in Slaithwaite, and called for action to be taken “drastically” to cut rates for small business owners. On law and order, she said she would like to see more police on the streets, but added that the prison system should be more effective, “one where people have proper work, for proper money, and they learn then to make a proper contribution to their upkeep.”
UKIP’s main policy is to pull the UK out of the European Union. Mrs Roberts said: “The problems with Europe are a knock-on effect. We are paying more money than we’re getting back… we’ve got to pay more taxes to finance that.” She added that she’d like to see a “more even” tax system saying, “we have to look after the people at the lower end, but we still have to encourage the people at the higher end to want to stay in this country.”
I spoke to Mrs Roberts at her shop this morning. Our conversation also covered education, transport, proposed cutbacks at Kirklees Council and the issue of MPs expenses. Although already a UKIP member, Mrs Roberts only entered the contest earlier this month, after reading on Saddleworth News that the party didn’t yet have a candidate for Colne Valley.
You can listen to the interview in full by downloading it from here.
My interview with the Green candidate, Chas Ball is here, and my interview with Jason McCartney of the Conservatives is here.
Also standing in Colne Valley are Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, the BNP’s Barry Fowler, Jackie Grunsell of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, and Liberal Democrat Nicola Turner. I intend to interview them later in the campaign.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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