Grassroots – Justine Thornton

Justine Thornton, the wife of Ed Miliband, Leader of the The Labour Party visited the Redcar and Thornaby South constituencies today to support the Labour candidates Anna Turley in Redcar and Louise Baldock in Stockton South.

The day started with a visit to a locally based charity called The Junction. The charity offers support to a large number of vulnerable children in some of the most socially disadvantaged communities. The visit came as her husband gave a speech in Stockton earlier in the day ahead of what is predicted to be one of the most closely fought General Elections in decades on May 7.

She then went to the Carers Together advice group in the town. The group offers help and assistance to carers by offering advice on benefits, housing, health problems, training and employment. Whilst there she had the chance to visit a small garden area that had been created by the members and chat with some of the group.

After leaving Redcar she then headed to the Stockton South constituency to meet up with candidate Louise Baldock and met with campaign volunteers and party members before joining Louise canvassing some of the local homes in the area.

On assignment for Getty Images I was given exclusive access to document the events of the day and whilst these things are all stage managed to a degree and photographers and the wider media are generally ‘used’ by the various parties to try and get their respective messages across, especially so at election times, the challenge I find is to try and get some nice shots from what can be fairly benign events.

Here’s a few from today…