In answer to the question put to all three politicians by BBC interviewer Rob Mayor, ‘when do you think we should have a general election’, Solihull West and Shirley Lib Dem Candidate, Ade Adeyemo, said:
“We need a general election as soon as possible. The people of Solihull West and Shirley have had enough of this incompetent government, they just want to get on with it now. Everything they've done to try and improve things have just gone wrong. They’re just incompetent and we just want to get rid of them now!”
Speaking about “big issues coming up on the doorstep” to all three panellists, Ade Adeyemo answered:
“In Solihull West and Shirley, what people really want is change. They’re tired of an incompetent government that lies, and most of what they're doing is just going wrong. The main issues really are the cost of living crisis, bills are going up and young people simply cannot get houses. I've got three children who are at that age, they simply cannot afford to buy a house. The Conservatives have trashed the economy, people are suddenly being told that it's going to cost thousands more to afford mortgages.
“What the Liberal Democrats are promising to do is to push whoever is in government. Who is going to represent the people of Solihull West and Shirley, to go out and challenge the Government? If they can feel the heat that will then push them to do the right things.
Mr. Adeyemo was challenged on the possibility of winning in Solihull West and Shirley, but he responded that historically, Solihull has not always been a blue constituency:
“We have won in Solihull before, twice, against very tough Conservative opposition. That's what we're trying to do again.
We hope to win Solihull back to put us back on the map and make us a leading constituency again in the West Midlands. We want to make sure that the local people of Solihull West and Shirley, who quite frankly have had disappointing MPs from the Conservatives, go back to having a good MP that everybody knows is good for them.”
Ade Adeyemo is currently Solihull Councillor for Lyndon ward and was challenged on council tax rises in the borough, predicted to happen across the whole of the UK:
“I think it's extremely challenging. We talked [earlier] about the cost of living crisis - the last thing anybody needs now is higher bills. However, even local authorities like Solihull, who are reasonably well-run, are still having to hike up [council tax] by the maximum that they're allowed.
“The real problem that all local authorities are having across the country is the fact that the Conservatives have, over the years, underfunded local authorities. When Rishi Sunak comes on television and says ‘I'm giving you a tax cut’, what he's actually doing is passing the burden to local authorities and making them do the nasty stuff. They put cuts in and that's really affecting us.
“The Conservatives run Solihull Council and they should be pushing the government harder. They're not doing that and we keep asking.”
You can watch the full interview on BBC iPlayer on the link below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001vgv8/politics-midlands-14012024
The Solihull and Meriden Liberal Democrats represent Liberal Democrat Members, Volunteers, Campaigners, Councillors and Candidates within the Local Authority area of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, and the two Parliamentary Constituencies of Solihull and Meriden.
Liberal Democrats in Solihull and Meriden have a long record of action for the community, fighting hard for local residents on issues that are important to them.
