Meet Dr David Nicholl:

Local NHS doctor campaigning to be Bromsgrove's next MP

David Nicholl is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bromsgrove, where he lives. David has been an NHS Consultant Neurologist for over 20 years and is now a Bromsgrove District Councillor.

After 13 years of this chaotic Conservative government, Bromsgrove constituents deserve a local champion as their MP. David is the credible, strong alternative to the Tories. Last year, David was elected as local Councillor to Bromsgrove District Council, pushing the Conservatives into third place. Now he wants to take this journey further by offering the people of Bromsgrove a campaigning MP who has a track record of taking on the establishment and who will fight to make sure you all get a fair deal. Nothing could make David prouder than to be the Liberal Democrat MP for Bromsgrove.

An experienced community leader. David has chaired Bromsgrove District Council's Audit, Standards and Governance committee, and a member of the Artrix Holding Trust, who helped re-open Artrix theatre.

A hard-working politician. David is already a hard-working councillor all year round, and has a  national and local profile on multiple issues. He is a compassionate and caring politician, who has highlighted the issues in relation to access to GPs, dentistry and the wider NHS. He organised charity fundraisers for better PPE, while the Tories were boozing it up in Downing Street. He has directly campaigned on the cost-of-living crisis, stood up for our Green Belt and the environment. He lobbied hard for the re-opening of Artrix arts venue. He both hosted in the Homes 4 Ukraine scheme, but also helped provide medical supplies to the Ukrainian frontline as part of charity he is a Trustee of.

A local champion. David has campaigned on several issues affecting our communities, from food banks to demanding action on sewage in our rivers, from protecting our green spaces and woods from inappropriate development to campaigning for better transport infrastructure across the constituency. His most recent campaign was against nitrous oxide laughing gas addiction has led to a change in the drug laws.

Dr David Nicholl's Plan for the NHS

As an NHS doctor who lives in Bromsgrove, David has made standing up for our NHS his top priority. Years of under-investment from the Conservative Government have left our NHS on life support.

There were over 257,000 four week waits for a GP appointment in Worcestershire and Herefordshire last year alone. That's why David is campaiging for a legal right to get a GP appointment within seven days, or 24 hours if in urgent need.

David is campaigning to increase medical training places, improve recruitment and retention for GPs and other health care workers, and for a fair deal where mental and physical health are treated equally.

David's Plan for the Economy

Private enterprise is the principal engine of growth and prosperity in the UK. British employers must be able to hire the workers they need, and those who choose to come to the UK to work or study should be welcomed for the skills and contributions that they bring.

The Conservative Government has failed businesses and workers. It has damaged business confidence, failed to support the high street by retaining the rating system, imposed unfair tax hikes and failed to provide the skills training so desperately needed. The Conservatives’ botched deal with Europe has done enormous damage to British businesses, and they have broken their manifesto pledge to sign a trade deal with the US.

We will work in partnership with business to offer stability and ensure that we maximize the opportunities for investment, growth and employment across the country. We will make the UK a world leader in ethical, inclusive new technology, including artificial intelligence. And instead of just focusing on the number of new trade agreements like the Conservatives, we will prioritize their depth and quality.

In return, we ask that businesses commit to promote skills, equality, good governance and support for local communities.

We will:

• Boost high street businesses and empower them to create new local jobs, including by reforming business rates.

• Develop an industrial strategy that will incentivize businesses to invest in new clean technologies in order to grow the economy, create good jobs and tackle the climate emergency.

• Unlock British businesses’ global potential by bringing down trade barriers and building stronger future relationships with our closest trading partners, including by starting to fix the Conservatives’ botched deal with Europe following the four-step roadmap as set out in the international chapter of this paper.

• Give Parliament real power in setting UK trade policy, by ensuring it is consulted on and signs off on negotiating mandates and any completed international trade agreements.

• Boost productivity and empower more people to enter the job market – such as parents, carers and people with disabilities – by changing the law so that flexible working is open to all from day one in the job, with employers required to advertise jobs accordingly, unless there are significant business reasons why that is not possible.

• Fix the skills and recruitment crisis by investing in people’s skills and increasing the availability of apprenticeships and career advice for young people.

• Introduce a general duty of care for the environment and human rights in business operations and supply chains.

• Address the labor shortages that are another outcome of the Conservatives’ botched deal with Europe by negotiating reciprocal deals on low-cost, fast-tracked work visas for key economic sectors.

• Support science, research and innovation, particularly among small businesses and startups, in universities and in zero-carbon, environmental and medical technologies, including participating in the Horizon Europe scheme.

• Tackle the productivity crisis by providing incentives for businesses to invest in training, take up digital technologies, and become more energy efficient. 

David's Plan for the Environment

The value of our shared natural environment becomes clearer with each passing year. Liberal Democrats will safeguard and enhance the environment.

Our natural environment is suffering. The UK is failing to meet 17 of its 20 biodiversity targets. The Government’s own regulatory body, the Office for Environmental Protection, has rebuked the Conservatives for their lack of action on tackling the nature crisis.

Nowhere is the Conservatives’ lack of care for the environment more apparent than in their failure to tackle sewage discharges. In the last three years there have been more than one million instances of sewage discharges into our rivers, lakes and coastal areas, lasting over 7.5 million hours.

Meanwhile, water company executives paid themselves £51 million in 2020 and 2021, including £30 million in bonuses, benefits and incentives.

Liberal Democrats will take strong action to tackle these problems by:

• Setting meaningful and binding targets to stop the decline of our natural environment and double nature by 2050: doubling the size of the Protected Area Network, doubling the area of most important wildlife habitats and doubling the abundance of species.
• Strengthening the Office for Environmental Protection and providing more funding to the Environment Agency and Natural England to help protect our environment.
• Ending sewage discharges by transforming water companies into public benefit companies, banning bonuses for water bosses until discharges and leaks end, and replacing Ofwat with a tough new regulator with new powers to prevent sewage dumps.