Selby and Ainsty By-election: Dave Kent of Reform UK

To help our readers decide how to vote, The Press approached all 13 candidates who hope to become the next MP for the constituency of Selby and Ainsty.

We have asked for their views on a range of topics, and we will publish their responses both in print and online.

Today, we feature Dave Kent, candidate for Reform UK.

What are the biggest issues facing the country and Selby & Ainsty?

For the first time since the war, many of the issues facing the people in the constituency and national, are indelibly linked.

Cost of Living?

There is no doubt costs have spiralled. However as seen this week on fuel, something I have been questioning for over a year now, profiteering has been happening. This is also happening with gas and food. The problem with rising prices, however legitimate they may start off, eventually can turn into an acceptance. ‘Well prices are rising’ this becomes a knock on effect, that companies / individuals would have normally questioned.

What would you tell the Covid inquiry?

During covid lockdown, which I believe was totally wrong thing to do and did say so at the time, many companies struggled to have the necessary services for their business, due to shortage of staff. It meant nobody questioned prices, they just needed the service or they would not be able to trade. This also had the knock effect of rising costs.

When we came out of lockdown, due to fact that spending money during lockdown was hard to do and we had a shortage in supply chain due to people not working, this meant that many people had money with a limited amount of goods. This was the time for the Bank of England to raise interest rates to keep down buying. They didn’t act and as a result prices soared. Now, now when they is very little money and prices are rising the Bank of England increases rates. This is nothing more than a case of causing recession and of course the biggest thing that people are really struggling.

What about ‘Green Energy’ and Net Zero?             

The next madness to cause this phenomenon is the crazy Net Zero stance. KPMG said a few weeks ago that Net Zero is costing each household a £1000 extra each household this year and it’s nonsense. But for what, an energy that is costly, unreliable and land grabbing. Land that could be used to grow food. But this is a global warming, China and India this year will burn 5 billion tonnes of coal and another 3 million elsewhere. I see everywhere I go instilling fear into are children, yet due to technology the answer is starring us in the face and remove this colossal expense on normal people. For something we cannot change.

I believe our climate is changing as it always has done. The Sahara Desert housed the largest freshwater lake in the world larger than the 4 large lakes of North America put together. This happened long before industrialization, so our weather changes and always will. The difference today is we know this and have the capacity to change.

Whether I’m right or wrong about this, does not matter, it’s what we can do? We make less than 2% of global emissions which means if we could go zero today it would not make one dot of difference.

Let us accept our climate is changing. We haven’t built a new reservoir since 1974 and during that time our population has grown almost 12 million and is still growing. So we need new reservoirs, cleaning up our rivers and seas, investing in the ability to pump fresh water around our land and prepare for taking water out of the sea around us by using desalination.

Housing?

In the Selby and Ainsty area housing is an issue, but keeping as much land available for food and growing is also an issue, so encourage builders not to build on this land but on so called grey land.

Immigration?

Immigration illegal and legal can be burdensome, when people who are struggling hear that people are coming here by illegal means and they are illegal. This is costing us £7 million per day, that’s just for the hotels and then there are lawyers and many of these, rightly or wrongly, seem to get the right to stay here.

This is extra burden on the housing problem, so there is a housing problem and then last year over 600,000- the population of a city the size of Leeds- will also eventually need housing and this continues. We have to become immigration Net Zero.

A final rallying cry?

They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. The two main parties are offering more of the same, do you really want to vote for that? I’m a hard-working guy living near Selby in the area. I promise to roll my sleeves up and make it happen for our area with business initiatives, making the area a prosperous, clean and vibrant area.