For Britain Movement’s first councillor says ‘residents are her boss’ after election win

Karen King was voted in as the new councillor for the town’s De Bruce ward on Thursday night - defeating two other candidates, include sitting Labour councillor Rob Cook, who was chairman of the planning committee.

Ms King said it was a ‘huge honour and huge responsibility’ to be elected to the council.

She said: “For the previous five weeks I had been asking residents to give me a chance to show them what I could do for them as a For Britain councillor.

“The fact that they have graciously given me that opportunity is a huge honour but also a huge responsibility, and I will never be able to thank them enough for their trust.

“The fact that I am now a councillor still seems a little overwhelming at times, but I am pushing that aside by focusing on the long list of things that I want to do in the ward during the next 12 months.”

She previously stood for election for the same party in the De Bruce ward in 2018.

On that occasion, she picked up 195 votes as Labour candidate Stephen Thomas was elected with 684.

Ms King has also highlighted what her top three priorities will be during her time as councillor - along with how she will be looking to carry out her business.

She said: “Three things will lie behind everything that I do: accountability, communication and accessibility.

“Accountability is important because as a public servant, funded by tax payers, the residents of De Bruce are essentially my boss. Everything that I do will be guided by their wishes.

“Communication is a key issue because I don’t want to be the sort of councillor who disappears and is rarely seen or heard from until the next election.

“On a regular basis I will be informing the residents on what I have been doing in the ward recently and issues that I will be dealing with in the near future.

“With regard to accessibility I would like to encourage residents to either phone me, stop me in the street or knock on my front door if their concerns can’t wait until ward surgeries.

“During May I will be doing a lot of behind the scenes groundwork to start dealing with the ward’s problems.

“Once again, I would like to thank the residents of De Bruce for their support: For De Bruce, For Hartlepool and For Britain.”

The For Britain Movement website states the party is a “positive, pro-British, pro-democracy party, which believes in preserving the culture and values of the decent British majority, and passing these on to future generations.”

Nic Marko, Local Democracy Reporting Service