General Election: "Judge me on my track record" says Labour's Bedford candidate as he seeks re-election

Mohammad Yasin said: “I’m so proud that I achieved a number of things for Bedford that’s the reason I want to stand again.

“Together we managed to save A&E and maternity units at Bedford Hospital when they were at risk with [the threat] of A&E moving to Luton and maternity to Milton Keynes.

“I worked with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to secure funding for mental health facilities back to Bedford.

“We have the location, we have money in the East London Foundation Trust account, but the government did not release that money.

“I also worked with the local council to secure £22.6 million for the Midland Road area,” he said.

Yasin was asked how many of these examples were something he had achieved and how many were group campaigns.

“I always believed in working with local people, the local council and with different organisations, ” he said. “Together we achieved these things.

“I don’t want to claim credit on my own, but obviously, other organisations [such as] the local council were involved as well,” he said.

Yasin’s majority at the 2019 election was 145, and residents have claimed that the Conservative campaign has been stronger than last time, so is he confident about being re-elected?

“I think the people in Bedford are going to recognise my services, they will judge me on my track record,” he said.

“And I’m very confident that after 14 years of Tory chaos I will win this election with a bigger majority.

“I’m not complacent, I’m working hard, I have been working hard since I was elected in 2017 and I will continue to do that. It is really up to the people and I believe what people are Bedford telling me on the doorsteps, and I believe that they will elect me because they are fed up with the Tories and they want a Labour government.”

He added that MPs should live in their constituencies.

“They should understand. the issues that people of the constituency are facing,” he said.

“I’m the candidate who ticks all these boxes; living in Bedford for 33 years, being a councillor in Bedford Borough for 13 years, my family lives here, we use the same services as the constituents use. If anything goes wrong with any service I will be affected as they are. If things are going well, we will enjoy them together.

“And I believe that when MPs are living locally they’re more passionate and they have more desire for the area to make improvements,” he said.

Yasin’s office said that they have handled over 40,000 cases since 2017, and that he was “particularly proud” as each case was directly assisting a constituent with a personal issue or discussed a policy point that mattered to them.

“I hope that people will re-elect me so I keep serving my constituents in Bedford and Kempston,” Yasin said.

The other candidates standing in Bedford are:

Prince Sadiq Chaudhury – Workers Party

Pinder Chauhan – Conservative

Ben Foley – Green Party

Tarek Javed – Independent

Matt Lansley – Reform UK

Henry Vann – Lib Dem

The election will be held on July 4.