It was the honour of my life to serve as the Member of Parliament for Redditch and the Villages for seven years.
I have always tried to do my best and I know I gave this job everything. I put my heart and soul into everything I did, and losing leaves a big loss and a big hole, but I know that God has a plan for me and I will be forever grateful for this time that I did have. Nothing in life is forever.
In my time as your MP I know we were able, with your support, to make a real difference to our town, securing funding for the Alexandra Hospital, guaranteeing its future after it looked like all the services would be moved to Worcester, attracting millions of pounds of investment into the operating theatres, additional services and testing capacity and I fought to return a maternity and children's service to the Alex. I will be forever proud to have secured the return of the Garden Suite Chemotherapy Unit to the Alex after local health bosses said they were looking at keeping the service in Kidderminster permanently following its re-location during the pandemic.
On top of that, I attracted multi-million pound sums to be spent on the Town Deal which I hope the incoming Labour government and newly elected Labour council will honour and will ensure is spent wisely for the benefit of the people of Redditch. We also:
- Ensured the Conservative Government selected Arrow Vale Secondary School for a complete rebuild
- Delivered £1.4 million in Conservative Government funding for a new youth centre in Woodrow
- Secured investment into roads, buses and local rail
We achieved much, much, more besides, which I know will all be already delivering real results in people's daily lives across our whole constituency and will continue after I'm gone.
My team and I helped many thousands of people and supported numerous community groups and local charities. I have held surgeries and events in every part of the constituency, including different areas of the town and the villages. I'm always inspired and heartened by the fierce love and pride people have for each other and their own neighbourhood. Redditch is a special place, it has challenges, like anywhere else, but is full of good people doing their bit for the common good.
As well as being your MP I was privileged to serve in four different government departments, dealing with legislation and policy that affected the whole United Kingdom, throughout many challenging times, Brexit, Covid, and the Ukraine war. There is a lot I am proud of, but I would particularly highlight what I was able to do on knife crime, domestic abuse, safety of women and girls, and victims of rape and child sexual abuse while serving in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.
In addition, I played my part while a Department for Transport minister in the transition to renewable technologies which the UK is a world leader in, driving jobs, growth and investment in the West Midlands and across the whole country.
Finally as Housing Minister I oversaw significant reforms to planning, brownfield regeneration and leasehold, all of which were painstakingly worked up over a period of many years and will flow into benefits for housing being built across our country for decades to come.
I never forgot that my role as a Minister was directly impacting people across the whole country and I used my experience representing you in my surgeries and casework to ensure that civil servants always understood the real world practical impacts of the policies they were developing.
About Rachel
I became interested in active politics when my daughter, then a teenager, encouraged me to stand as an MP because she was frustrated with the lack of women MPs. At the time I was a mother of four school age children and building our business Packt Publishing (now the UK's largest publisher of IT and technical content). She inspired me to put my Conservative values and beliefs into action, and that was the start of the path to Parliament.
I'm a local woman, and have lived all my life within a few miles of this constituency, mostly in Birmingham and Solihull. Since I was first elected in 2017 I have lived in the Redditch constituency with my husband Dave and our two rescue dogs Phoebe and Herbie. My four children are all grown up now and I have two lovely grandchildren.
In my rare free time, I prioritise spending time with my family who have given me their unstinting support even though family life has changed out of all recognition since I was elected. I find that a long walk in the Worcestershire countryside or the Welsh mountains with my husband Dave always makes everything better.
I am a traditional Conservative with strong values. I have had 30 years starting up and running my own businesses before coming into politics, so my worldview is entirely informed by the experience of being an entrepreneur and having to make a profit to pay employees and put a roof over our head and feed our family.
I believe in the bonds of local community. Over the years I have volunteered in numerous local organisations including Sunday School, the NCT and the Scouts, where I was a Scout Leader for 20 years.
I am a practising Christian and my faith supports and guides me in everything I do.
I am proud to be British and I believe in defending the nation state and protecting British culture and values of the rule of law and personal responsibility.
My values:
- Strong family as the foundation for everyone to achieve their potential.
- Manage immigration, everyone who comes here must contribute to our country, live by our values and respect our way of life.
- Hard work must be rewarded and those who cannot work must be supported. Those who will not work must be incentivised to work because it is the best form of therapy.
- Back business, allow people who have made money to keep more of it because the profit motive is a force for good.
- Freedom and responsibility to make choices, learn from consequences and own the outcome.
- Every child, no matter where they live, deserves the best education.
- People cannot change their biological sex.
- Our democracy must be defended by elected representatives, not courts, judges, or regulators. Parliament is sovereign, not the EU, the ECHR or other supra national bodies and institutions.