I am a former Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy.

Full statement

I am an engineer by trade and my last role in the Navy was as a Nuclear Reactor Operator. My partner and I have a large family with children ranging from Primary School age through to University age. My partner and I have a disabled son, and we also became kinship carers after taking in one of my daughter’s friends a few years ago to prevent her going into care. My experiences with education, health and social care, defence and industry have all helped to shape my political views.

I first stood for Reform UK in the 2024 General Election. What first attracted to me Reform was their stance on defence, taxation and fairness. Since the general election I was the Reform candidate at the Kilpatrick by-election in November 2024 and I am now the branch chairman for Dunbartonshire. With our new Labour government my commitment to Reform has not softened or been tempered; I can see from our ever-increasing local and national membership numbers that many people are feeling the same way.

We are all living with the burden of having a Labour government in Westminster and an SNP government in Holyrood. We are all feeling that strain in our daily lives. Within West Dunbartonshire we also have the additional burden of having a Labour run council.

Our council provost is now the SNP councillor, Karen Murray Conaghan. This is not because West Dunbartonshire have voted for an SNP majority in the council, but as a direct result of the utter chaos at the center of our Labour led council. Following Labour scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, voted for by our local Labour MP, Douglas McAllister, 2 of our Clydebank Waterfront Councillors left the Labour party and now sit as independents. This resulted in the Labour Group Leader, Martin Rooney, leaving the council chambers and the remaining councillors voted in the SNP provost.

The chaos of Labour is not only limited to who our provost is, it is reflected in every single council run service, most acutely within this year’s council budget. In the latest published annual accounts, Councillors and Council executives have awarded themselves pay rises between 10 and 15.5% at the same time as defunding services for the most vulnerable in our community. To put this into perspective, the basic salary of a councillor has increased from £21,803 to £25,128 per year. Shockingly the chief executive of the council received a 13.5% increase with his annual salary now at £144,584.

There has been an increase in funding from Westminster to Holyrood, plus an increase in funding from Holyrood to our council. Despite having one of the largest council tax increases in Scotland of 11.5%, in addition to the new charges for having our garden waste removed, our Labour councillors voted for a budget which leaves a deficit of almost 10 million pounds for Health and Social Care.

Our UK Labour government has increased employers’ national insurance and refused to exempt charities from this increase. This means running a charity is now more expensive than it has ever been, and many are being pushed to the brink of closure. It’s not just National Insurance increases that are pushing up costs for charities and local business. All staff and running costs have increased. Labour promised lower energy bills at the general election and all their policies have done so far is increase costs. Our council’s response to this has been to further cut their funding.

Women’s Aid funding cuts will result in the closure of the Clydebank branch. The Carers Centre budget has been cut by 20% which equates to £80,000, with further year on year decreases in funding being discussed. There have been further cuts to Kinship Care funding and there has been no additional funding provided for Ysortit, which is a real terms cut. All the while councillors and MSPs are queuing up to have their picture taken at Old Kilpatrick Food Bank to ‘show their commitment to our community’ with no idea or any intention of addressing the real issues of why we have a food bank in the first place.

I stand firmly on the side of our community, local charities and local businesses that have been abandoned by our council. If I am elected my entire councillor’s net wage will be donated to help support our local charities. Whilst that is not enough to reverse the harm made by the council it will help where help is needed the most.

I have never been more worried for the future of our children and our community as I am right now. We have a housing crisis. Our nearest city also has a housing crisis and is overflowing with migrants and all our charities are under attack from our national and local government. Net zero energy policies are making homes more expensive to build, purchase and live in. More and more of our local businesses are closing each week after being hit very hard by net zero and additional taxation. The next generation will undoubtedly have a much harder time than we had if we do not act now for positive change.

West Dunbartonshire needs a councillor who can stand up for local people and say enough is enough. This is West Dunbartonshire’s last chance to elect a Reform UK councillor prior to the next full round of council elections in May 2027.

Please help us to support our community by voting David Smith Reform UK in the Clydebank Waterfront, Ward 6, by-election on Thursday May 15th.

Vote David Smith on Thursday 15 May – let’s make real change happen.