Events at the football club are really disturbing and I can’t believe the Tories running Basingstoke council or our Tory MP Maria Miller have allowed this situation to develop.

As if this wasn’t enough, we need a new ice rink too, both thanks to years of underinvestment and neglect. I hear it’s the Labour councillors who are raising public awareness to save these institutions. The Tories have failed. It’s time we had a Labour Council. And since the Tory Councillors blame lack of Government funding, evidently, the Tory Government has failed too, so we need a Labour Government at the next election.

Rather than sit about and complain, I decided to do something positive and stand as a Councillor in the reformed ward of Brighton Hill.

I look forward to meeting the residents of Brighton Hill in the following weeks in the ward to understand fully their concerns.

On a separate note, I’d like to thank Cllr Kim Taylor for organising our Basingstoke Labour leadership hustings last week where 70 members met and nominated Keir Starmer for Leader and Angela Rayner for deputy.

It was great to see so many of our members and councillors at the meeting, especially when we also had seven Labour councillors in another meeting holding urgent talks with board members of Basingstoke Town about the future of the football club.

With the current fiasco surrounding Boris’ cabinet reshuffle culminating him in losing his chancellor after just a few weeks, there has never been a clearer need for a strong opposition.

Boris’ move to centralize control under Dominic Cummings is a threat to democracy. That is why we need a Labour government and that is why Keir Starmer is my choice for Labour leader.

Steve Rolfe, prospective Labour candidate for Brighton Hill