Godalming and Ash Constituency

PPC - Graham Drage

Biography:

Graham was born and educated in Guildford, going onto read Politics, International Relations & French at university, a period he describes as his political awakening. As part of his degree, he spent 16 months studying politics in Paris, which opened his eyes to the realities of the “European project”. Today, Graham remains a passionate, bilingual European (culturally-speaking) and a strident supporter of the new outward-looking opportunities which Brexit presents.

Since the late 1990's Graham has been self-employed; working as business consultant for some of the UK’s principal telecommunications and managed services companies. He also setup a small manufacturing business, building wine cellars over a 15-year period, whilst employing a small team of ex-offenders in his workshop in Farnham.

From working-class roots, he holds political views which are right-of-centre, moderate and coherent. A believer in small state, low taxation economies which operate 'within their means', Graham maintains that SMEs are the beating-heart of Britain’s economy, providing 16m jobs and accounting for half of its income. This has been wilfully ignored by successive governments, creating a hostile economic environment for entrepreneurs in recent years.

Graham’s optimistic and considered political views advocate a move away from mangled Keynesian group-think ideas around money printing, high taxation and expanded public spending to stimulate growth. On climate change, he supports a rational decarbonisation policy, which takes full account the UK’s carbon abatement costs, without leaning on the dishonest policies of offshoring of our heavy industry & carbon footprint.

He believes that young people deserve better opportunities through structured apprenticeships and a shake-up of our poor-quality, overly expensive university system, which prioritises high-paying, foreign students over British students. Rewarding young voters who are willing to invest in themselves should be a key priority of this next government.

Graham’s decision to stand for election with Reform-UK stems from a profound belief that a new approach is required. His aim is to re-engage the people of Godalming & Ash into the political process and encourage Surrey voters to reject the declinist narrative by voting for a party which advocates positive change.