Interview: Susan Kramer
politics.co.uk spoke to Susan Kramer, engaged in a tough fight for the Richmond Park seat.
By Marina Kim
The Liberal Democrats’ office in Richmond Park is extremely busy.
As their candidate Susan Kramer is finishing off some paperwork, I look around. There are heaps of leaflets on the floor and on the tables. I also make an observation that there are a lot of young people helping her.
“A lot of old people help us as well,” follows her immediate reply.
Crikey, I face a properly trained politician here. Either this, or Kramer really has to be careful with journalists. Richmond Park is a marginal seat that the Tories are trying to snatch away from Lib Dems. Every mistake may get noticed by the opposition.
Accompanied by her press officer, we leave the office. As we walk to a little café a few minutes away, Kramer is quick to brand it “a Lib Dems’ local.” A man behind the till smiles but does not comment.
The campaign here is intense and feisty. Zac Goldsmith, Kramer’s main Conservative opponent, accuses her of fabricating the closure threat to Kingston Hospital for electoral reasons. He also blames her supporters for tearing down Conservative posters, and infiltrating his campaign – and that is not the end of the list of allegations. A whole page of Goldsmith’s website named “Keep it clean, Kramer” is devoted to the slurs he says Susan Kramer’s supporters have been spreading about him.
Kramer denies the allegations: “I know nothing about it. My opponent has done nothing but made a series of personal attacks ever since he became a candidate.”
Goldsmith’s allegation about Kingston hospital is something Susan Kramer feels strongly about. She says she first found out about the report containing the closure plans through private conversations with NHS executives.
“There were a number of options in the report and almost all of those options involved closing maternity and A&E units.
“A few weeks ago, just before the end of the parliament the Department of Health announced that the Treasury had finally signed off on the £280 million rebuild of St Helier Hospital. They are going to completely rebuild half of the hospital and upgrade another half. Under those circumstances you can see why Kingston is so vulnerable.”
“The report put out eighteen options, and sixteen of those eighteen options involved the closure of departments at Kingston Hospital. It was clear that Kingston hospital is at risk.”
Kramer claims she still has the documents confirming the closure plans. A whistleblower sent her some parts of the report. She admits the decision is not final and hasn’t been confirmed yet. But in her view, “if you wait for a final decision you are out of this discussion.”
Goldsmith is adamant that if the Conservatives come into power they would not close the hospital. He is so sure of it that, as a guarantee to the sceptics, he promises to resign if he is elected and the hospital closure goes ahead.
“It is very nice of my opponent to offer his head,” says Kramer. “But the reality is we want hospital departments, somebody’s head is not an issue. The issue is whether we will be able to keep the departments.”
Asked whether she would also resign if the hospital gets closed and she is elected as an MP, Kramer says: “I would certainly leave my party. But I can never see myself having to be in that situation. Take for example the third runway at Heathrow. Every Liberal Democrat member of parliament was totally opposed to the expansion. There was no sort of split within our party.
She contrasts the unanimity of opinion within the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives: “Nigel Lawson, the big beast in the Conservative party, asked the minister if he would waive the climate change act so that the expansion of Heathrow could go ahead. Within the Conservative Party there are many people who are in favour of a policy which my opponent has explained he is opposing. In my party we are coherent.”
The decision to introduce parking charges in Richmond Park is another burning issue for the area where the position of both candidates coincides.
“Car parking charges are unfair. You have many local people who will not be able to afford to pay the charges and will have to cut back. Many people not wanting to pay will park just outside of the park’s gates, and the streets will be thick with cars on bank holiday weekends or Christmas.
“We introduced ‘the fatal motion’ to kill the charges. But the Conservatives refused to vote with us. Then they had their own motion asking the government to rethink. But the government thought about it for five days and said they would keep the parking charges,” she says.
The Liberal Democrats also have a strong stance against the digital economy bill. Kramer, didn’t vote on the bill at the end of the parliament, but says:
“It was on the last day of parliament, and it was very confusing what time it was going to be. I had constituency commitments. We thought the bill needed a lot more thinking. It should have just been called with everybody coming back in a new parliament. I knew my party would be taking the right decision on this.”
On educational reform, Kramer is against money being taken from existing schools that need resources and switching it into another new school. She insists the Liberal Democrats have an investment commitment to the educational sector.
“We made a decision to put an additional 2.5 billion into primary schools. That is to make sure that every school has resources. We are putting more money into education.”
The Liberal Democrats also claim to be ahead on issues of green taxation and commitments to a sustainable future.
“We’ve always taken a lead on green taxation, as you know. We’re also particularly focusing at these elections on making aviation pay.”
Susan Kramer admits she only watched the highlights of the first leaders’ debates which boosted the Liberal Democrats’ popularity. But she has already noticed the Clegg-effect on her campaign.
“People in our office are simply over the moon because of the debates. We were already in a very good mood but this lifted our spirits even more.”
Kramer, who has already held the Richmond park seat for five years, says she wants to remain an MP because a lot of things need sorting out in the area.
“I’ve lived here for seventeen years. I have been a part of the Heathrow anti-expansion campaign for fifteen years. Primary schools [in Richmond] are the best in the country but the question is how to make secondary schools just as good. Getting those changes has been very important. We are on the way there and it is crucially important,” she says.
Among her other achievements, Susan Kramer names finding staff and offices for Safer Neighbourhood teams as well as continuously fighting against car parking charges in Richmond Park.
Kramer had a seven per cent majority in 2005 and this is a target Conservative seat. It remains to be seen whether Kramer’s hard fought campaign buoyed by the Clegg effect will undo the hopes of her determined celebrity Tory opponent.
