Sunday 16 February 2014

Campaign update blog: Less than 100 days to go.....

It is now less than 100 days until Polling Day for the European Parliament elections.

The campaign here in the East Midlands is now in full swing. Thank you to the campaign teams working hard in all parts of the region. Thank you especially to the campaign teams that have welcomed the European candidates to Leicester, Loughborough, Northampton, Corby, Lincoln, Boston, Nottingham and Broxtowe for our recent 'Super Saturday' campaign days.

It has been great to see so many activists out joining us on the campaign trail along with our MPs including Jon Ashworth in Leicester South and Andy Sawford in Corby. We have also been joined by Labour's Prospective Parliamentary Candidates including Lucy Rigby, Sally Keeble, Matthew O'Callaghan and Nick Palmer.

East Midlands Labour 'Super Saturday' in Nottingham.

In Lincoln with our PPC Lucy Rigby and team.
The team will be campaigning across the region in the coming weeks. For details and to sign up for our campaign events visit the East Midlands Labour website.

In the past few weeks I have also visited Corby and Erewash Labour Parties to speak at their constituency meetings about the campaign and Labour's vision for a fairer Europe. It was also good to speak at a meeting of the Leicester Labour Campaign Forum.

A few weeks ago I met with Labour's candidates for North West Leicestershire, South Derbyshire and Burton to discuss the need for the Ivanhoe Railway/ National Forest Line to be re-opened for passenger trains between Leicester and Burton. This would have real economic benefits for the area and I am supportive of the campaign. I will be working with Jamie, Cheryl and Jon on this campaign in the coming months.

Meeting with Labour PPCs Jon Wheale (Burton),
Jamie McMahon (North West Leics) &
Cheryl Pidgeon (South Derbyshire) to
discuss the Ivanhoe/National Forest railway line.

In recent weeks I have also met with Leicestershire Ramblers Association to discuss the importance of good footpaths in the area and also visited the new Food Hall at Leicester Market which is under construction and which is backed by £2 million of EU funding. The timber used in the construction is all from sustainable sources. The the city council is one of the first 40 organisations to sign up to the European Sustainable Timber Coalition and to reach the Gold pledge in the WWF's sustainable timber procurement campaign.

You can find on this site other updates from the campaign and news. Thank you again to everyone campaigning in the East Midlands and across the country for May's elections.

Remember, to keep tweeting about your campaigning. You can follow me on twitter @Rory_Palmer and my Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/RoryPalmerLabour