On Friday 15 November, Michael Eavis warmly welcomed Kama McKenzie, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Wells constituency, to Worthy Farm, giving her his full support. The pair discussed a range of local issues, including affordable housing – a topic close to Eavis’s heart. To date, Eavis has built 68 affordable homes in Pilton, which he has reserved for local families under long-term tenancies and vows never to sell. Of Labour’s plans to build 1 million affordable homes over the next ten years, Eavis says: ‘It’s incredibly important that families can stay in their local area, feeling secure with homes for life.’ Eavis also celebrated the success of Glastonbury’s St Dunstan’s School, where McKenzie is a parent governor, acknowledging that a change in leadership had turned the school around. The two talked about the importance to the local area of sustaining the school’s improvement and shared concerns about the levels of funding for education under the current government, as well as their hopes for future generations under a Labour leadership.
Eavis told McKenzie – the first woman candidate to stand for Labour in Wells –that he looks forward to voting for her in the upcoming general election. Eavis himself stood for Labour in 1997, achieving an 18.1% share of the vote, and he hopes to see McKenzie’s own share of the vote surpass that achievement. Kama McKenzie first met with Michael Eavis in 2017, when Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited the first homes built in Margaret Bondfield Close.
Meeting with McKenzie last week, Eavis shared that he would be talking with Corbyn later the same day to affirm his support: ‘Corbyn is the leader this country needs right now.’