Jay said at the launch, ‘I’m so honoured to have been selected to contest Chichester. We are launching our campaign today just yards away from where my grandfather worked. We have a unique offer to the voters of Chichester, a vision of a society based on social justice and hope, a more equal society where opportunity is available to all. Only a vote for Labour can send this Tory government the strongest possible message that enough is enough.’

Jay’s working-class family background gives her an understanding of the real issues that people face in their day-to-day lives. She now works as an architect, working mainly on social and affordable housing and public places. Here she sees at first-hand how the planning of a street, creating new job opportunities or access to good quality affordable housing can really shape a community for the better.

Jay is involved with the campaign group Generation Rent and is also a member of the Fabian Society. She has been running a series of talks at the House of Commons entitled ‘Glass Ceiling Not Glass Slipper’ to establish what holds women back in the twenty-first century.