Voters are impatient for change, Labour chair says

Voters in the South East are "really quite impatient" to feel change, the chair of the Labour Party has said.

Labour is defending three councils in West Sussex at the local elections on 7 May – in Crawley, Adur and Worthing.

Asked in an interview with BBC South East why the public did not feel that town centre services and support for businesses had improved, Anna Turley said that it "showed the scale of the task".

"This is why I think people are really quite impatient and urgent for this kind of change," she said.

Turley added: "We've been battered by 14 years of austerity. Since the 2008 crash, high streets have struggled and so many communities feel left behind, and that's what this Labour government is about."

She said that the economy had been "turning a corner" before the strikes on Iran began in February.

"We know these are challenging times with everything going on in the world but we're really proud to support small businesses and everyone," Turley said.

She also insisted that Labour was focussed on "delivering on the things that really matter to people".

Labour's local elections campaign has focussed on government measures to help with the cost of living.

Asked whether Labour councils should be doing more to avoid additional costs like raising council tax and parking charges, Turley said that it was a "real challenge" but said that many Labour councils were "doing a huge amount to support people with the cost of living".

Turley declined to offer a view on how Labour might perform in West Sussex at the elections on 7 May.

She said: "I don't want to put any numbers on anything, but I'm really proud of those councils and the record they've got."

BBC South East is speaking to senior figures in all the major parties standing in Sussex and Surrey ahead of polling day.

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