'It needs to change': Independent Hartlepool General Election candidate Sam Lee urges voters to abandon 'two-party system'

Sam Lee is standing as an independent candidate in the upcoming General Election after coming third behind the Conservatives and Labour in the town’s 2021 Parliamentary by-election.

The 48-year-old journalist has run a number of businesses in the town and set up her own independent coffee wagon on the Headland, a venture which closed after she became embroiled in what she described as “council nonsense”.

Now she is outlining her ideas ahead of July 4’s poll, promising to introduce a voting app to allow people to vote on all major issues between elections.

Ms Lee, a former Hartlepool Mail sports writer, said: “We are conditioned to think that only a Labour or a Conservative MP knows what is right for us.

"We have had Labour MPs for years, then since the last election we have been represented by a Tory.

“Regardless of the colour of the rosette, nothing seems to change.

"Party politics seem to be more important than the interests of those who have voted.

"We put a tick in a box and then we never hear from them again until the next election.

“It needs to change. I was born in Hartlepool, I went to school in Hartlepool, I’ve set up businesses in Hartlepool and my son goes to school here.

“I live here, I speak to people every day and I know what they want, I hear their concerns and I share them.”

Ms Lee is planning to call her mobile voting app Direct Democracy and said it will allow her constituents to advise her on how to vote in Parliament.

She explained: “Our current system sees the parties spend thousands of pounds on advertising and turning up at every photoshoot possible to get you to vote for them and then they listen to none of our concerns once they are in.

"They are told how to vote by their party whip and if they disobey, they are threatened with being expelled by the party.

"How can that be good for the people they are meant to be representing?

“I will introduce the Direct Democracy app which allows you to tell me how you want me to vote on issues and I will always report back as to what is happening in Parliament with honesty and transparency.”

She also plans to bring more investment into Hartlepool through her extensive business ties, promote tourism and bring more money into the town while demanding why “we appear to have the worst services” given the size of council tax bills.

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