Janice Small was last night selected at an open primary to contest the West Yorkshire marginal of Batley and Spen at the next general election. She runs a marketing business with clients in pharma, automotive, financial services and political communications. Janice ran the press campaign for David Davis during the Haltemprice and Howden by-election last year and she also works for Yorkshire & the Humber MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott. She recently came second in the Calder Valley selection process before securing this Yorkshire seat.
Batley and Spen has been represented since 1997 by Mike Wood for Labour, but was held for the Conservatives between its creation in 1983 and 1997 by Elizabeth Peacock. At the next election Mr. Wood will defend a notional majority of 6,060 (based on the Rallings and Thrasher calculations), meaning that Janice requires a swing of a 6.8% to unseat him.
Janice said on her selection:
“I am delighted to have been selected to represent Batley and Spen and now look forward to representing the constituency in the months to come. I know from talking to people across Batley and Spen that they are ready for change after twelve years of inaction from this Labour Government.
“People are worried about paying their mortgage, will they have a job in the months to come, will they get their children into a decent school and will their savings be safe. Businesses cannot raise the cash they need to expand and those that can are seeing extortionate interest rates being imposed upon them.
“As an owner of a small business, I will work with businesses to get them through this recession and retain the skills we need. Because if we don’t, then those jobs will go to India and China and will be lost forever. I urge employers to get in touch with me and I will do all I can to help”.
Jonathan Isaby
