General Election 2024: Lib Dem candidates for Bury St Edmunds, Cllr Peter Mcdonald, and West Suffolk, Cllr Henry Batchelor, launch campaigns

Liberal Democrat candidates for two Suffolk constituencies have launched their General Election campaign.

Vying for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket is Cllr Peter McDonald and for West Suffolk is Cllr Henry Batchelor.

The issues they wil be fighting for include a platform of increasing the budget for farmers and re-negotiating international trade deals and NHS dentists contracts.

The party also said it will prioritise setting a seven day target for seeing a GP, which includes a two month target for cancer patients to start treatment.

Cllr McDonald is a CEO of an agriculture start-up near Bury St Edmunds and has been a district and county councillor in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, for four years.

In a statement, he said: “I am delighted to have been selected to fight Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket at the next general election.

“This is an area with an important agricultural community that matters to me a lot, and I have been frustrated at the lack of support in recent years for our local agricultural economy.

“I look forward to speaking to local residents and campaigning as a different kind of voice for our area.”

The party is also seeking to renegotiate NHS dentist contracts to take on the demand caused by Covid and add a renewed focus to community policing.

Cllr Batchelor, of Haverhill, is campaigning to make changes with sewage, health and local economy.

He said: “It is clear that there are struggles that our area is facing.

“Water companies are spending thousands of hours dumping sewage into West Suffolk rivers, residents are struggling to see their GP or get a dentist appointment and 73% of burglaries in West Suffolk go unsolved.

"I have lived in West Suffolk for over half a decade, I feel the issues that people are having in our area and I'm determined to fix them.”

Also contesting the Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket constituency are Emma Buckmaster (Green), Peter Prinsley (Labour), Scott Hussey (Reform) and Darren Turner (Communist).

Others due to fight for West Suffolk are Rebecca Denness (Labour), Mark Ereira-Guyer (Green), Katie Parker (Independent), Luke O’Brien (Independent) and Ivan Kinsman (Social Democratic Party), Nick Timothy (Conservatives) and Raymond Lyon (Reform).