It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as Member of Parliament for Hornsey & Wood Green since 2015 and to be your voice in Westminster through these turbulent times.

So much has happened since I was first elected.  Our community has come through a global pandemic and continues to suffer through a cost-of-living crisis.  We spent years tied up in Parliamentary wrangles over the botched Tory Brexit that Hornsey & Wood Green so overwhelmingly rejected, and as Labour MPs we’ve faced four Prime Ministers at the dispatch box.  Different faces but the same old Tories, and every single day I see the impact of 13 years of Conservative choices on our creaking public services, our lack of decent social housing, our struggling high streets and the growing numbers of children living in poverty.

Under Boris Johnson’s leadership we saw lies, law-breaking, incompetence, and the utter debasing of standards in public life become common place.  His successor Liz Truss is long gone but the thousands of pounds she has added to people’s mortgages and rents won’t disappear as easily.  Current PM Rishi Sunak has chosen to spend £1 billion on a tax cut for the richest 1% rather than put money back in the pockets of people who are struggling and has presided over a government that shamefully criminalises and seeks to demonise vulnerable refugees.

A Labour Government is needed now more than ever, and I am proud to be part of a bold reforming Labour team that can give our community hope that the future will be better.

A General Election can’t come soon enough, but when it does things are changing.  The Boundary Commission proposals would see our Hornsey & Wood Green constituency replaced by a new Hornsey & Friern Barnet constituency.  You can read the background to the proposals and my previous submissions here and here.  These final proposals see the wards that make up Wood Green (Noel Park, Woodside and Bounds Green) move to a new Southgate & Wood Green constituency and Highgate move to Hampstead and Highgate.

That means at the next election, I will be the Labour Party’s Candidate for the new seat of Hornsey & Friern Barnet.

If elected, it would be a privilege to be a voice for people in Friern Barnet and Harringay wards, who will now form part of this new constituency, as well as to continue to represent people in Alexandra Park, Crouch End, Fortis Green, Hornsey, Muswell Hill & Stroud Green.  But there is no question that I will miss representing vibrant Wood Green and Highgate and the brilliant residents, community groups and local businesses who make these areas so special.

I am putting this statement out today because the Boundary Commission’s announcement has inevitably brought questions from residents about what it means for you.  However, I want to reassure everyone in Noel Park, Woodside, Bounds Green and Highgate that, for now, nothing changes.  I remain your MP until the next election and will continue working every day to stand up for our area in Parliament and be there to help residents with individual problems.  If there’s anything I can help you with, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

I hope that when the next election comes, it will usher in the start of the change Britain so desperately needs.  I give you my commitment that I will always stand up for our community and do everything I can to build a fairer, greener Britain.

Best wishes,
Catherine