With just two weeks until the general election, the Epsom Guardian asked each candidate to introduce themselves and explain why you should vote for them.

Traditionally regarded as a safe Conservative seat, Sir Paul Beresford has been Mole Valley MP since 1997 and won more than 53 per cent of the vote in the last election. 

This year, he is going head-to-head with Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green party and UKIP candidates. 

Sir Paul Beresford, 69, Conservative

Sir Paul has been Mole Valley’s MP since 1997. He previously served as the leader of Wandsworth Council  from 1983 for a decade.  The dentist, who lives in Bookham, was MP for Croydon Central from 1992 until 1997, when its boundaries were redrawn and he won in Mole Valley instead. 

Your Local Guardian:
 

Personal statement: 
I am highly experienced at achieving positive change. 
As a minister I achieved considerable change in the inner cities of England, which was followed up and supported in the main by the Labour Government after 1997.
As a backbench MP, by choice, I have managed to achieve a considerable number of legal changes particularly in child protection, which has become very 
relevant following the Jimmy Savile revelations. 
There is more to be done and I have been working closely with the Metropolitan Police on these issues.
Locally, I am deeply involved in the fight to protect our greenbelt and to stop the environmental damage from Gatwick’s new flight paths and the prospect of the second runway.
I commonly advise other, predominately Conservative, MPs on achieving legislative change. 

  • What is your motto/philosophy for life? Life can be better if you try
  • Which person, dead or alive, do you most admire? Churchill
  • What is your greatest fear? At the moment a Miliband led government especially if backed by SNP
  • What trait do you most admire in others? Straightforward and openness
  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever done? Thinning carrots in a market garden in the blazing sun in New Zealand
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? Helping the environment by twice helping stop a second runway at Gatwick and by assisting in forcing Mole Valley & Guildford Councils to rethink the their potential damage to our precious green belt
  • Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. What’s yours? When England play the All Blacks, although I cheer for England I will have already bet on the All Blacks
  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A RAF fighter pilot as were many of my parents generation. My eyesight stopped that!
  • What do you eat for breakfast? Coffee and a hot cross bun
  • What do you love / hate most about your proposed constituency? Love - The environment, especially the green belt. Hate – the mindless threat to the green belt .
  • What is first on your list to change / do if elected? Continue the battle against the threats to our environment on the green belt and from Gatwick airport
  • What’s your favourite TV programme? Newsnight

Paul Kennedy, 53, Liberal Democrat 

The qualified actuary, accountant and lawyer has more than 30 years of experience in the private and public sectors. Back in 2004 Mr Kennedy joined a Liberal Democrat working party that recommended the citizens pension policy now being implemented by the Pensions Minister.

Your Local Guardian:

Personal statement: 
Over the past five years the Liberal Democrats in Government have shown how we can safeguard a fair, free and open society by building a stronger economy that provides opportunity for everyone.
We have halved the deficit while cutting taxes for 30 million workers by raising personal allowances, creating two million new jobs and two million apprenticeships, restoring the earnings link for pensions, increasing funding for schools and hospitals, and tackling climate change. I want to continue this work by ensuring there is sufficient funding for mental health, including the extra £8bn a year the NHS says it needs.  I am the only candidate who can beat the Conservatives here – no other party achieved more than seven  per cent last time or  in the recent Lovelace byelection and I will be a full-time MP serving the people of Mole Valley. I disagree with MPs taking second jobs. Instead, I will work tirelessly to defend our hospitals, schools, towns and villages, and demand a better deal for our area from national and local 
government.

  • What is your motto/philosophy? Live and let live
  • Which person, dead or alive, do you most admire? Jesus Christ. Over the last five years it would be Lib Dem Pensions Minister Steve Webb who has restored dignity and security to retirement after decades of chaos and confusion
  • What is your greatest fear? Michael Gove - my daughter is a teacher and any further ideological turmoil would make her life hell
  • What trait do you most admire in others? Kindness
  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever done? Pupil barrister
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? My children. Over the last year it would be forcing the Conservatives to drop plans to build thousands
  • of houses in the Green Belt after local Lib Dems achieved a landslide by-­‐election win in September.
  • Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. What’s yours? I am Australian
  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Doctor
  • What do you eat for breakfast? Anything – but usually make do with porridge or muesli with
  • fruit and yoghurt
  • What do you love / hate most about your proposed constituency? Love the people, hate the
  • roads – the state of our highways illustrates perfectly why Surrey County Council with its inbuilt
  • Tory majority urgently needs electoral reform
  • What is first on your list to change/do if elected? Save Leatherhead Hospital
  • What’s your favourite TV programme? Currently Poldark

Len Amos, 57, Labour

Mr Amos was left disabled after a work accident in 2010 and has worked with politicians to give the disabled a voice in Parliament.  He left school at 16 with no formal qualifications, did an apprenticeship and worked in the construction industry. 
He later returned to academic study and achieved a masters degree in construction restoration and conservation. 

Your Local Guardian:

Personal statement: 

If elected in May my pledge will be to work for all constituents in recession-hit Mole Valley to improve
services by:

  •  Protecting pensioners rights and treat them 
  • with respect
  •  Ending low-paid work and zero hours contracts
  •  Working with housing groups to build affordable housing 
  •  Working hard to protect and improve our local NHS services
  •  Protecting the greenbelt from unnecessarydevelopments
  • Improving road safety,repairs and local transport.
  • What is your motto/philosophy for life? I believe in speaking as you find and when something is not right do something about it.
  • Which person, dead or alive, do you most admire? Winston Churchill.
  • What is your greatest fear? Failure.
  • What trait do you most admire in others? The determination to win an argument or reach a compromise.  
  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever done? Cleaning industrial grease traps.
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement?  In 1996 I went to college and then University as a mature student to study for a degree construction. Graduating in 2001 with a BA (hons) followed by a Masters Degree in 2002 in Construction restoration/Conservation.
  • Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. What’s yours?
  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A policeman
  • What do you eat for breakfast? Cereal and toast or if I have time a fry up
  • What do you love / hate most about your proposed constituency? The wide divide between those who live in prosperity and comfort and those who live in poverty.
  • What is first on your list to change / do if elected? Protecting the rights of pensioners and treating them with the respect they deserve. Working with employers to put an end to zero contract hours for employees who work twenty hours or more a week
  • What’s your favourite TV programme? Silent Witness

Paul Oakley, 46, UKIP

The practising barrister originally stood as the Conservative candidate for St Helens North in Merseyside in the 2005 general election. In 2012 he stood as a UKIP candidate in the London Assembly election and last year he was a UKIP candiate in the European elections.  

Your Local Guardian:   

Personal statement:

At the 2013 county council poll UKIP’s  Leatherhead and Fetcham East candidate took 29 per cent of the vote. Last year we polled the second-highest votes in the seat for the EU elections. Given the national decline of the Liberal Democrats and the failure of Labour to make gains in Mole Valley, the only real choice is between the Tories and UKIP. The old parties offer no answers. The national Lib Dems support the expansion of Gatwick. They and their Tory councillor pals cannot, or will not, stop house building on the River Mole floodplain that will make future flooding more severe. And it is about time the County Council started doing something about the atrocious state of the roads which are among the worst in Britain for potholes. Adding insult to injury, Boris Johnson joined with Surrey County Council to 
introduce regular bike competitions in the Surrey Hills, which have boxed-in locals and led to traffic chaos. If elected, I will work with the Greater London Authority to have these events moved to Uxbridge. See how he likes it.

What is your motto/philosophy for life? “Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

  • Which person, dead or alive, do you most admire? My family. All of them.
  • What is your greatest fear? Spectres. And dancing.
  • What trait do you most admire in others? Loyalty.
  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever done? Cleaning behind the fridge.
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? Not yet achieved – freeing us from membership of the EU. I won’t rest until this is done.
  • Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. What’s yours? I’m not a contestant on the Jeremy Kyle show. Mind your own business.
  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Darth Vader.
  • What do you eat for breakfast? Lark’s tongues and baked dormice.
  • What do you love / hate most about your proposed constituency? The glorious landscape of the Surrey Hills / the old parties’ desire to build on it
  • What is first on your list to change / do if elected? Repeal the European Communities Act 1972.
  • What’s your favourite TV programme? Don’t have one. TV is dull.

Jacquetta Fewster, 46, Green

Ms Fewster has lived in Dorking for 15 years and is standing for Parliament for the first time. 
If elected, the cancer charity worker wants to insulate thousands of home to prevent unnecessary deaths due to the cold. 

Your Local Guardian:

Personal statement: 
This area faces increasing pressures – from more and more building, to traffic, pollution, even runways. If elected, a priority for me would be to make the economy more equal. We need to spread the wealth more fairly, so there is less pressure on the south east, and more jobs and investment further north, and in the developing world too. And the economy needs to work better for people and the planet. So instead of pushing us to consume more and more cheap stuff, it should support us to invest in the good things in life such as local food, local art, education, and other things too – carers who can spend more than 10 minutes with an isolated older person, have a chat, and put a smile back on their face.

  • What is your motto/philosophy for life? Smile (and it’s true – the world smiles with you).
  • Which person, dead or alive, do you most admire? Mahatma Gandhi
  • What is your greatest fear? Rich countries don’t tackle climate change until it’s too late.
  • What trait do you most admire in others? Spotting the one thing that will really make a big difference.
  • What’s the worst job you’ve ever done? I was suspended from the high branches of a tree on a freezing Halloween night pretending to be a corpse.
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? The part I played in helping to ensure the South Downs received National Park status, giving the special landscape the protection it deserves so that everyone can enjoy it forever. 
  • Everyone has a skeleton in their closet. What’s yours? When I was 10 and my little sister was laid up with a bug, I ate her last Easter egg and blamed the dog. I can’t resist chocolate!
  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Prime Minister!
  • What do you eat for breakfast? Porridge.
  • What do you love / hate most about your proposed constituency? The thing I love most about my constituency is how beautiful it is.  What I hate about it most is the pressure it faces – from development and traffic congestion. 
  • What is first on your list to change / do if elected? Insulate thousands of homes.  31,100 excess deaths are caused because of cold homes in the UK: a shocking statistic.
  • What’s your favourite TV programme? Doctor Who.

For more General Election 2015 coverage visit www.epsomguardian.co.uk/generalelection2015