Introducing Stephanie Lewis CEC Candidate for South East

ABOUT STEPHANIE: I am currently a member of Unison – in our locality I stand as International Relations Officer. I stand as treasurer for our local Palestine Solidarity Campaign and am part of the local planning group – we organise as a collective an umbrella of actions either as part of the national agenda or decision making at a local level. I am currently part of planning for our local AGM and an upcoming Barclays actions across two social justice groups. Previously, I’ve been part of organising local marches, local assemblies, film showings at various local independent cinemas, travel to national marches & direct action. In my role with Unison I have been working on the LGPS divest campaign with other officers and PSC across Hampshire and I spoke to the Palestine motion at conference. I take part in actions organised by Stand Up To Racism – I have just recently spoke to a motion at regional which passed to reaffiliate.

STEPHANIE ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS….

YOUR HOPES FOR YOUR PARTY

1. What does Your Party mean to you, what do you want to see Your Party members doing more, and how would you support that work from within the CEC?
2. What processes and safeguards would you want to see implemented to curb factionalism in the party and ensure that members remain sovereign when it comes to important decisions.

1. I have said this from the beginning – this is the first time in a long time where I felt I had a political home and that small bit of hope was all I needed to commit and be all in. And I think that there are a lot of us feeling like this, wanting this to work and willing to put what we can into it to see that happen. I feel like Your Party is it’s members – so when the questions asks what do you want to see us doing more of, the answer is everything. The power of the movement lies in our branches and communities. As part of the CEC – I feel the work should be focused on accessibility – if we are looking as part of our outward statement to change the balance of power at every level in our society then we need to be showing that in our actions and processes. And that includes whilst building our structures, this process for example, I have witnessed the ongoing barriers. It is not enough to say any ordinary member can be on the CEC – what are we doing to make that a reality.

2. Gosh – this is something that my mind spends alot of time on and I imagine that it is not just me. I mean to answer this collaboratively and generously as I envisage that is absolutely what we need to be doing when discussing all things within this party. However there is a part of me that when I start thinking about what is currently playing out in terms of factionalism that just wants to tell everyone to pack it in. Because whilst I see that we need to be supportive and work together – my question would be, what are those that are part of this creation of factionalism doing to safeguard against it. And why are we having a narrative that it is only when the CEC is on board that something can be done – where is the accountability of members now, in this current moment, in their current actions. With respect I feel like there are moments where I am being sold a solution to a problem that doesn’t need to exist – and this makes me sad because this feels like the policitics we have, not the politics I want. We are a party that is saying we are trying to do different but still relying very heavily on old ways – on what was and what is.

LET’S TALK POLICIES

On Disability

1. A disabled person’s care needs don’t end when a parent or carer reaches retirement age but the carer’s allowance does. What do you think the CEC and Your Party could do to address this injustice?
2. Are you committed to the social model of disability?
3. How do we ensure the rights of disabled people are taken seriously?
4. How will you ensure accessibility and inclusivity for disabled people in Your Party?

1. The way I see Your Party and therefore the CEC working is building power within the branches and communities – we take our views and we use this to shape our policy and agree what action we want to take and what that looks like. So for the example of such injustice within the carer’s allowances I would suggest there is already much resource out there that I feel we would benefit from mapping out – I appreciate we are a party that is starting from ‘scratch’ but that does not mean we cannot look to the expertise that may already be out there and adapt it for our purposes. I would suggest we gain the views of our communities – I would be wary of letting the work fall to those experiencing the barriers so there is a balance to be had to ensure co-production and not expected labour. We could create working groups, we could look to call in support from organisations/individuals who want to speak to our actions with their research. It is my opinion that the main part of anyone who will be on the CEC and their practice is to bring in people’s experiences to really understand how we need to move, however we need to work together to first understand how best to do that. The CEC would also be part of bridging and ensuring our messaging around disability justice is heard in the right spaces for enacting change.

2. Yes – I am a social worker and we study the social model of disability and the model states that disability is something that is created by society. It is barriers and inaccessibility that create disability. I think that any process or policy making will require a social model of disability lens during its creation. 

3. By building it into our foundations – by making it non-negotiable. And that means whenever we are taking an action, we consider what this means to all our members. I am grateful to be part of the possible repping in the South East so far however I have witnessed many barriers moving through this process where we are not considering differing needs.

4. By speaking to our members, by asking them how we can make this work for all of us. I am very interested in the building of structures within a new party because effectively you are both working with a clean slate and a wealth of experience. If you consider and I guess this touches back on to a previous response – the knowledge we already have and use this alongside the voices of our members and communities, you could develop a theory of change based on politics as we know them now and what we want to see. And that should be at every position, part, area within the party, every single aspect of the party.

On Benefits

1. What is your vision for sickness, disability, carer, child and unemployment benefits?
2. Do you support a Universal basic income / Universal basic services?
3. Currently, Amnesty International calls the social security system in the UK ‘Consciously cruel’. What do you think needs to be done to tackle this?

1. There are many people I love that experience the absolute unnecessary harshness of this benefit system and it is my opinion that a complete overhaul is required. I would want to see a system that is compassionate, invests in our people and steps away from the consistent hoop jumping that I see those I love having to endure.

2. I am a supporter of UBI – from what I understand of it the considerations are that it is unconditional and look to rebalancing some of that power imbalance between employees and employers. It would provide accessibility and stability – it would do away with the idea of means tested and all the very many possible reasons the government can find for you not to receive your income. I know there is already research out there however it could be a part of our work to understand what UBI could look like by speaking to our members and communities. We could be part of feeding into a larger mobilisation of collating this information and campaigning.

3. I would wholeheartedly agree with Amnesty International – it is this hostility that we seem to find in many of our systems where it feels like the state lends a hand but ever so begrudgingly – it is a passive or maybe not so passive, aggressive stance that gives the energy of the person needing to be grateful that they are getting any help at all. And this feeds into societal narrative about how we may view a person ‘reliant’ on the state. I despise it so much – why are almost all of our policies that are meant to aid so punitive? Why does it feel like its always a no first and then you have to fight, like we have to first hit crisis. In my role I have to strongly advocate for services for our children, I would rather that I didn’t have to and that time could be put into creating opportunity for them to thrive, not survive. This is what I mean when I talk about having humanity and our communities voices centred in our policy – I have answered previously in response to carer’s allowance, I would adopt a similar approach to change here.

On Jobs

1. How do we generate more well paid jobs in this country?
2. Do you believe the wealth gap between employers and employees needs to be addressed and, if so, where would you cap it?
3. Do you think the real living wage should continue to be voluntary or obligatory?
4. Do you think we should introduce a ‘back-to-work’ scheme in this country where people are given an annual allowance, instead of fortnightly benefits (for a period of time), so that they can become self-employed instead?
5. Do you think think the Employment Rights Act is adequate and, if not, why not, and how would you want to improve it?

1. This is a very interesting question, as they all are and I am unsure how to answer this (and I would like to point out at this point in case it wasn’t already obvious! I am definitely not having all of the answers at all, that is why we all need to work together, there are many things I need to educate myself on a lot further). I guess I would need to understand what is meant by well paid – I feel like there is a lot to consider when we are talking about employment and I see it in my head as the ideal being well resourced, so we are talking work/life harmony, security, well numerated and well supported. But what came to mind straight away is I’m perhaps somewhat ignorant here but I feel like we already have jobs that are incredibly important but are not waged appropriately at all such as people in the caring profession. I would want to see that readjustment.

2. Any wealth gap needs to be addressed and redistribution of wealth as we know is very much needed. When I set out to stand – I promised myself that I would do it as I am because then whatever the outcome, I would have stayed in alignment. In the spirit of true transparency at one point of this CEC elections process I started to prang out, feeling like I have a certain level of knowledge on everything. And then I think of our MPs we have now (even though I also don’t see this role as that of an MP but some of the CEC election process feels like it leans that way sometimes) – they are not having an expertise on everything, they seek expert counsel, working groups etc and I would even go as far as to suggest they shouldn’t have an opinion on everything considering some of what we hear. In my lane I would be calling in the knowledge and experience around me to help me understand better what a possible cap could look like but I imagine I would be facilitating our responses as a collective as to relying on mine.

3. I believe it should be obligatory – being unsure if you will be able to cover your basics should not be an option for anyone, whether in employment or not. I understand that a lot of work has gone into the collation of calculating the real living wage and I am not succeeding at this moment to properly articulate what I am feeling – but here’s a go. I imagine it is still not enough and if I understand it correctly this is a campaign to try and get better for those that need it within the systems we have. Ideally we would be fighting for new systems with much more scope and opportunity to understand and support what a real living wage looks like for our communities.

4. That’s an interesting idea and I don’t think I have heard of this before – I would like to hear more about what people think of this and to see the research. I would like to understand for example what are the proposed benefits of such a scheme. And I would want to understand if UBI for example would have the considerations as part of it, to be self employed. I would like to reiterate with some of these answers, I would feel more confident acknowledging that I might have an opinion on this but if we are talking about the role of the CEC, my opinion would not be and should not be a driving factor – we would want to be making these decisions together and we would do that imagine by pulling together our experience, data and perhaps expertise in its different forms.

5. No its weighted on the side of the employer, we could look to bring in more power for unions and collective representation.

On Housing

1. How do you think we can improve housing in deprived areas, so as to tackle the urgent issues of rising rents, unaffordable housing, shortage of social housing and, in some areas, Airbnb or developers taking over all free properties that could become homes for people? This issue is badly affecting young people who can’t afford the rent on their low wages and also older people 50+ who also can’t find enough work
2. When we win an election, and if it’s within your remit to do so, what measures would you implement to address the homelessness crisis.

1. Our home is such an integral part to our wellbeing and safety and as you state in the question there are so many barriers to us accessing something affordable and I would add, fit for purpose. I would imagine that a key focus would be on creating affordable and accessible housing and capping rents. Also a focus on putting empty properties into public hands. And for there to be restrictions in place for developers – as to what that would look like specifically, I imagine people a lot smarter than I can help us understand. As with all our societal concerns – they are interlinked so you would also need to look at how we create stability through income.

2. To acknowledge that what we are referring to here in this question as a homelessness crisis is not just a shortage of affordable, accessible and suitable homes but that we are also talking about consistent failures across our services to meet the needs of our people. Therefore when we address the homelessness crisis we need to be also addressing our crisis in social care and welfare and the systems that we have that oppress and discriminate (also love that your question started with when we win an election, I’m absolutely here for that).

On Inequality

1. Where do you stand on Trans rights and do you believe a woman’s place on the CEC should also be open to Trans women?
2. What is your stance on a youth/student wing, Disabilities group, BAME group, Women’s group or a LGBTQIA+ group within the party?
3. If it were within your remit, what measures would you want to see put in place to combat Transphobia, gender stereotypes, racism, religious intolerance and the general ‘fear of the other’ within our communities, for example in education, in health, in the work place and in negative media portrayals.
4. How do you think we can tackle the centuries-old culture of blaming poor people, and address the real causes of poverty?

1. Trans rights are human rights and whatever work is needed to make that our reality should be all of our work. Trans women are women therefore a woman’s place should be open to Trans women.

2. I am absolutely here for it – we as members should be able to advise on what will be the most accessible, supportive and beneficial to them ways to be in the party and this may look like having dedicated groups.

3. One of the things that drew me to this party was that it felt like the first time I was hearing people say with their chest – these are our societal inequalities and these are the driving factors. I wish for this party to never shy away from saying unequivocally we stand for equality and justice and that needs to be a constant in our messaging. I would want stronger legislation for intolerance and hate – I know there is law around public bodies for example but don’t experience this as having much weight in action. We need our messaging in the workplace to be coming from all levels and the numerous and varying equality statements that we see need to be embedded in our practice and process. We need to be using the research we have that highlights our many injustices in our systems to push for change and we need to work together to build that power. I was very grateful to be privy to the house of people’s assembly last year where they created a charter and there was wonderful discussion around the accountability that the media needs to have. And not just media, our public figures, anyone having a platform, there should be consequences to spreading untruths.

4. Many of us suffer from the systems that are in play and we are in this together – as opposed to the very few that are making our decisions, that are with the power. I feel like the answer to this is a culmination of all my answers – we need to have very clear messaging as to what is driving the inequalities we face and act as we propose to move, be consistent and work at building our communities, growing campaigns, creating policy that works for the change we want. And use our research and data to back our movement.

The Environment + Green & Renewable Energy

1. Consider the challenges of building renewable energy. What is your view on how we should handle the trade‑offs between industrial growth, renewable construction, environmental impact, and the concerns of local people, for example, in the proposed Morgan & Morecambe Wind Farm?
2. What do you think should be done to tackle global warming and environmental degradation?
3. How do we achieve a just transition from the fossil fuel extraction industry to carbon neutral occupations?
4. How do you think we can tackle the lobbying power of the fossil fuel and animal agriculture industries?

1. I think as with anything you want to be building with communities – you need to listen locally and decision making to be with the people. I feel like my response below to just transition fits here too.

2. We look to the experts – those who have put all their time and energy into bringing us our solutions. Some of the answers are in these questions such as renewable energy, reduce our consumption (we can look to degrowth, restore our nature and protect and invest in our oceans and our forests).

3. Its the consideration of all communities this will impact and how will they be supported in the changes  – I hear this as understanding your people in each area and planning in a fair and inclusive way. This will be reskilling workers for new jobs within the industries, person centered process and decision making and assessing against social inequalities.

4. Create legislation that disallows lobbying funding and influence in government.

The Economy

1. Imagine Your Party has just won the General Election. How do you think Your Party could best manage the hostile economic reaction of the capitalist markets and hostile hyper capitalist countries?
2. What is your view of economic growth versus de-growth, and what do you think the key economic policies of Your Party should be?
3. Do you support the Wealth Tax?

1. There are going to be some questions that whilst I can acknowledge are really important, I don’t think I will always be best placed to answer – this is one of them. I would imagine that we would want to bring into our movement those who have a specialist knowledge and I think that’s part of why Your Party is going to be so powerful because we acknowledge we achieve when we come together and share our experience and knowledge. We stand firm in what we believe and we continue to move that way and commitment stays to our people – I apologise for not being able to speak further to it.

2. This may be a simplistic opinion but it is what I have – what we are doing is not working, our continuous reach for economic growth is detrimental to all types of life. Our focus should be on valuing and honoring what we have in terms of resource, not seeking further destruction.

3. Yes and I am going to refer to research on tax justice that speaks to this suggesting it could raise £24 billion a year – this would go in some small part to redistributing wealth.

Foreign and Defence policy

1. Do you commit to a complete arms embargo on Israel and ending all military cooperation, and what do you think about the global militarisation of foreign policy generally, including the planned defence of Ukraine.
2. Do you believe the UK government is complicit in the Palestinian Genocide (named as such by the UN 9/25).
3. If it were in your remit, would you reverse the proscription of Palestine Action?
4. What are your thoughts on defence expenditure in general, but also in light of the fact that we’re going through a cost of living crisis in this country and our taxes could instead be used to ease the financial burden on households and support our public services?
5. What does a ‘free Palestine’ look like to you?

1. Categorically yes to complete arms embargo and military cooperation.

2. The UK government is absolutely complicit – actively so.

3. Within a heartbeat.

4. I support the Welfare not Warfare campaign – at Unison’s conference last year we passed a motion to oppose any increase in military spending and to increase the amount on public spending. We need to be investing in our communities and our services.

5. Whatever the Palestinians want it to be. Self determination, justice and peace for the Palestinians.

General Questions on policy

1. What are the key policies that you would like to see in the Your Party manifesto for the next general election?
2. Imagine Your Party has just won a general election, what’s the first action or policy you would work to implement?
3. What do you think our taxes should be spent on?
4. What should, or should not, pension funds be invested in?
5. What are your thoughts on mass surveillance? Mandatory ID might be on ice but what about future attempts to reintroduce it, and what do you think about live facial recognition?
6. What are your thoughts on full public ownership of vital public services?

1. Those that are agreed and collated by our members – that is my understanding of why we will hold regular branch meetings and local assemblies, to ascertain where we place our energies and how we mobilise and identify work that is already taking place. I have my priorities and they are shaped by my own lived experience but whatever policies we choose they will I know be ones that will unite us and fight for social and climate justice.

2. That would not be for me to decide if I am speaking as a CEC candidate – that is for the members.

3. Whatever constitutes as investments in life and our planet.

4. As aforementioned I am working with others on the campaign for divestment from local government pension scheme – PSC leads on this work and Unison has a commitment to this. Pension funds should not be invested in weapons, companies complicit in genocide. Pension funds should not be invested into any companies that are contributing to the climate crisis. Pension funds should be invested into the future we want to see – in ways that fight our inequalities and position people before profit.

5. We have seen that mass surveillance is a violation of our human rights – those of privacy and freedom of speech and I am horrified by the possible consequences of mandatory ID – I have worked with some of the most vulnerable in our society – made vulnerable by our laws and systems, and the impact on that scheme going through would have devastating consequences for them. Live facial recognition is another violation of our privacy.

6. I am in support of full public ownership.

YOUR PARTY RULES & MANAGEMENT

1. In your opinion, what would be the most effective and fair way for Your Party to decide on and write policy (i.e. proposed and written the by CEC, by branches, by individual members, or by Sortition Assembly, for example)?
2. What are your thoughts on how the CEC, and other Your Party structures, could be made to function more effectively and in the interests of its members?
3. Do you support dual membership and, if so, which other parties would you approve?
4. ⁠Will you ensure that ‘one member, one vote’ is enshrined into the party’s constitution?
5. Voters do not want to see discord in Your Party.  What processes would you want to see put in place to allow members to raise grievances, have them addressed fairly and expediently, and for lessons to be learnt?
6. Would you ensure the CEC provides members with a contact number and email so that members can contact you with suggestions and questions?
7. Taking cybersecurity concerns and obligations into consideration, at a time when there is serious concern  that member’s data could be hacked, leaving members exposed to harassment and other risks, what protections, other than those provided by cybersecurity tools, would you want to see put in place when sharing membership information with local branch executives?
8. How do you see Your Party operating in areas where people are fundamentally right wing and any kind of public street stalls can be very dangerous for those involved, and how should Your Party CEC and the party centrally support comrades in those areas?
9. Do you support the party investing, on a targeted and financially sustainable basis, in permanent and visible local spaces to enable branches to hold meetings, run public-facing events, and engage with citizens outside of election cycles? Please also explain why you support, or don’t support, this initiative.
10. Given the fact that politics is rife with self-serving careerists who priorities their own interests and the interests of their donors, over the interests of party members, and British voters, to the extent that they are prepared to lie their way into office and then break every promise they ever made, would you support a simple mechanism that allows party members to call an immediate vote of confidence in any Your Party elected official, including MPs, councillors and staff on the CEC (or other party structures)? Also, in the event that they lose that vote of confidence, that they are immediately removed from that office (ideally triggering a by-election in the case of MPs and Cllrs)

1. Is this sortition of members or sortition of our communities? I am absolutely here for sortition and I think a mix could work but I would love to explore that more with people who experiences on pulling assemblies together – perhaps like house of people. I am so interested in how we will implement assemblies within our practice and for me – if I am understanding our initial documentation, we would look to be ensuring the outcomes of those which will include both and members will shape our policy?  And then we could look at how that would be agreed – decided upon – I think this would be by members.

2. I’ve been thinking about this alot recently because at the moment (or how I am experiencing I should say) is that we are focusing on our regions for example and we are considering the individual but then the bigger picture thinking needs to consider how each individual will come together to work together and how will their skills be completing each other – what if the process we are using now leans more towards one skillset when we really need to think about all the different skills across the board we need to have in one team. And then in addition to repping, they will have named roles such as treasurer etc. The CEC could split into smaller groups so there is a recognised focus for each section, for example a focus on policy, a focus on inclusion, a focus on making the making process work (maximum member democracy) – whatever the structures look like, they need to be accessible, they need to be structures that enable any ordinary member to be a part of. We should be able to see ourselves in all roles.

3. I support dual membership and it is very clear how important this is to members – but this idea that the CEC approves the parties I don’t think is my expectation of what should happen – it should be decided by our members.

4. I feel sad that we need to ask this question but I totally understand why it is being asked – I feel so much of our time is being expended on my stance is what we vote for is what we work with, I do not have an agenda different to this.

5. I feel that most of the discord that we might be referring to is not from lack of alignment – it feels like it comes from not feeling valued, heard or having a direct communication or clarity in our processes. When we actually start working with and involving our members in a meaningful way we will learn exactly what needs to happen to ensure members are able to share their experiences and voices and how to address them.

6. I think as a party that is saying we want maximum member democracy I would want to see all manner of ways that members can get in touch and share their voices. In my role as social worker, when I am meeting with a child, one of the things we talk about is how best do they want to communicate, what are their preferences. We should be doing that with our members to understand how best do they want to get in touch, number, email, in person etc.

7. This is another answer where I say we benefit from talking to each other – for example in our proto-branch in Portsmouth we have incredible experience and part of that is past data officers – I would be looking to hear what they have to say on how we can best safeguard our member data.

8. Oh this is a very good question – I speak from experiences at having the far right here in Portsmouth attend anything remotely left leaning looking including our proto-branch meetings. For any of our actions that we are calling in our communities we have to risk assess, whether that’s for PSC, SUTR or Your Party. That’s how we have to manage it in the now and the landscape we are all  experiencing. We have to consider what is best for the people taking part and that sometimes looks like working collaboratively with the council and community safety and the police. I think also this is where we will benefit from our cross group work because it can be safer for us when we have bigger numbers. What we need from the CEC and from all our leading figures, decision makers etc outside of Your Party is to be really clear in their messaging that we don’t hate here. Our local authority for example says we need to take a neutral stance and that we should not bring politics into work – however it is my opinion that the silence is a message in itself. Neutrality suggests a fair balance and there is nothing fair or balanced about the oppression, violence and intimidation we see in our city. The CEC should be co creating safety plans and risk assessments with their members and getting a true understanding of how each area looks and how best to support.

9. If I understand this question correctly then it is a huge yes from me – it is what excites me the most about this party. I would love to see regular established assemblies that build our communities and its power, grow our voices and shape how we move. Imagine, for that to be an expected part of how we create change – that will be key to our foundations.

10. This party is so important to many people and we absolutely should have safeguards built into our practices that ensure those elected roles are accountable to their actions.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. How would you distinguish democratic socialism from social democracy, do you identify with either, and, if so, why?
2. Should there be an electoral alliance with the Green Party?
3. Please sketch how you would fight an election campaign paying particular attention to the voting base you would attempt to mobilise, the messages you would try to get across, and the means you would employ to promote such messages.
4. Do you think we should keep the Monarchy?
5. Do you think it’s important for Your Party to have strong animal rights policies? If so, can you provide examples?

1. My understanding of social democracy is that it is an ideology that sets out to reform capitalism. I identify with democratic socialism as I do not believe we can enact the change needed within capitalist structures – it would be an act of papering the cracks rather than pulling the harmful structures from the root which is what is needed.

2. My feeling with this is that we can’t approach this as a blanket response – there are many considerations and right now we are a very new party. That means not only are we still establishing ourselves and agreeing on what we stand for, not all of us are in positions to be standing candidates. We here in Portsmouth have the May elections and there is a real fear in the rise of Reform candidates. We have to consider what will keep out the far right and it is our locality that will understand best what our political landscape looks like. So I think that decision making needs to be done with the members and by each area.

3. This answer should be the default answer to all questions as to how we create within the party – understand your members, understand your communities, your localities and plan together – then you will know where your energy and focus needs to be.

4. I am not here for the Monarchy. I would not choose to keep them.

5. I’m a firm believer in animal rights – and it is my opinion that if you are standing against exploitation and for peace, we need to be giving equal consideration to all life. The recent work by the House of People created a people’s charter that spoke of a future generations act to put people and nature above profit.

YOUR PARTY SOUTH EAST HUSTINGS (8th February 2026)….

YOUR PARTY SWALE HUSTINGS (27th January 2026)….

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