About Me
I work for HMRC in Nottingham. I am a current member of the National Executive Committee (NEC), Vice Chair of the PCS Midlands Regional Committee, and Assistant Branch Secretary for the Revenue & Customs East Midlands Branch. I have also served on the Revenue & Customs Group Executive Committee (GEC) as a committee member and lead negotiator and am standing for re-election in 2026. I have been an active trade union member and activist since the late 1980s with over 30 years’ experience as a union representative, with PCS and legacy unions, supporting, defending and representing members’ interests and campaigning for improvements in pay, terms and conditions, equality and equity. I’m a dedicated trade unionist and have been active in multiple campaigns to defend and further the interests of our members across all sectors of our community and am active in the anti-racism movement.

Cost of Living and Pay
The cost of living crisis has still not ended with recent events actually making things worse for many members. Thousands of our members struggle to make ends meet. Increasing numbers of our colleagues continue having to claim in-work benefits and use food banks. Yet again, thousands of our members will receive a pay increase in April just to prevent their salaries dropping below the national minimum wage.
In 2025, the majority of our members received an above inflation pay increase, due in no small part to the action members took on the national campaign. While this was above the inflation rate at the time, this did little to restore our member’s pay to pre-austerity levels and fell significantly short of our demands. Therefore, we must continue to hold the Government’s feet to the fire with the aim of achieving improvements in pay, to protect and improve our terms and conditions, and to make good on their pre-election promises.

Bringing Work Back in House.
A manifesto promise made by the current Government promised the largest round of insourcing in a generation. We are yet to see them make good on this promise. In December there was an opportunity to bring the administration of Civil Service pensions back in house, yet the contract was awarded to Capita, and despite Capita inheriting an over 80,000 case backlog from the previous contractor, Capita increased that backlog to 120,000 in just 3 months. PCS under the current Democracy Alliance leadership have been instrumental is challenging the situation and securing an agreement that compensation will be paid to pension scheme members for the delays in paying their pensions. However, on top of the pension situation, we now know that that a lucrative multi-million pound contract is to be awarded to Capita for the administration of Civil Service salaries in some of the largest Departments. A Democracy Alliance led NEC will continue to hold the Goverment’s feet to the fire on this and other issues.

National Campaign and Levy
Democracy Alliance candidates promised members that if they were elected in sufficient numbers last year, they would repay the levy that continued to be collected while no industrial action was taking place. We repaid your faith and made good on that promise, and members have been able to claim a refund.
On the subject of the Fighting Fund, we want to build consensus across all political factions, active in PCS, for a strategy that will enable us to build a fighting fund that would mean we don’t need to use a levy to fund action in the future.

What next?
While negotiations continue and gains being made, we have not achieved everything we demanded last year, which is why we need to develop our strategy and continue to fight for meaningful real terms increase in pay, and the restoration of our salaries to the level they should be at, had they only kept pace with inflation. We have a broad agreement that the issue of low pay needs to be addressed, as does the differential between pay grades. We continue to work towards achieving pay coherence across the Civil Service and on the defence of our redundancy terms and pension rights. We continue to challenge the employer’s attitude that attendance in an office for at least 60% of the time is the only way we can do our jobs. As stated above, this strategy should be built in full consultation with all members, and it is my belief that this can best be achieved under a Democracy Alliance led NEC that will keep the impact of the campaign on members as low as practicably possible, while demonstrating the value of every single Civil Servant.

It has been proven that under a Democracy Alliance leadership, we can and have successfully challenged the Government and will continue to do so.
As a Socialist and member of Left Unity I am proud of all our union has done, and should continue to do, to support, defend and further our members’ interests. PCS is not affiliated to any political party, and I strongly believe that no political party should be permitted to take control of our union.

I am standing for re-election to the NEC so that I can continue using my experience, as part of the Democracy Alliance team. To continue the fight to improve members’ pay terms and conditions, fight against job cuts, and the appalling situation with Civil Service pensions, to defend jobs against privatisation and outsourcing, fight to keep our workplaces safe, and for the equality and equity every one of our members deserve. To continue to build our union by recruiting more members, recruiting, training and supporting more union representatives right across the entire Civil Service and in the commercial sectors.
I encourage you to use your vote in these elections and to vote for the Democracy Alliance candidates.