I was born and bred in Dudley and work locally as a firefighter. I joined the fire service because I wanted to help the community when they were at their most vulnerable. But I soon realised that firefighters and other working class people had no one standing up for them, voicing their views or fighting on their behalf against cuts and austerity.

30 years of free market dogma from all parties now means the next generation will be worse off than the last one. Tory, Liberal, Labour and now UKIP all argue that working people must pay for the crisis of the economic system, rather than the minority who most benefit from it.

Working people need our own voice in politics in order to focus on bringing people together to demand more resources - not to pit communities against each other to fight for scarcer resources.

TUSC fights and defends our NHS and services from austerity and privatisation. We want a £10/hr minimum wage, an end to zero hour contracts, a massive increase in affordable housing and a socialist change in society.

If elected, I’d continue to only take the wage of a firefighter instead of joining the Westminster establishment.