MP wins for the eighth time
FOR THE eight time in a row, David Tredinnick has been elected as the MP for Bosworth.
The Conservative candidate was voted back into office after securing a 56.7% share of the vote.
With an increased majority of 18,000 - up from 11,000 - beating Labour’s Chris Kealey into second place, Liberal Democrat third-time hopeful Michael Mullaney and Green party candidate Mick Gregg.
It now means he has been re-elected as Bosworth MP in every election since 1983.
But he said while he was personally happy he said the national result was “not one we expected at all”.
He spoke on Monday before the Prime Minister Theresa May was due to meet backbench MPs at the 1922 Committee with questions over her future as Tory leader.
He said: “I might speak [at the meeting], we will see how it goes. There’s over 300 voices to be heard in a short space of time. As a party we don’t want a leadership election. I think the press have been gunning for her over the weekend but it’s better that we stay with Theresa May.
“We should also reflect on the fact that our vote went up but it’s just that Labour’s went up as well with [Jeremy Corbyn’s] very expensive policies.”
He admitted that an error was in the manifesto, especially when it came to social welfare.
“I think there was a problem with the presentation of the manifesto which was too detailed for its own good,” he said.
“I think if we’d said we need to adjust the spending for social care without going into the detail that would have been enough. It frightened people and when they start to get into the detail which hadn’t been thought through I think that was, with hindsight, an error.”
Now the Conservatives, with 318 seats, are looking at working with the Northern Irish Unionist party DUP in order to form a minority government.
But with some Conservatives uncomfortable about working with the DUP due to the Good Friday peace process, the DUP’s social conservatism, and with the likelihood of by-elections, Mr Tredinnick believes the nation will have to go to the polls again soon.
“It’s quite likely there will be another general election. I haven’t had a chance to talk about it to my colleagues. I think it’s possible,” he said.
He added: “They [the DUP] will need to deal responsibly with the nationalists in the [Republic of Ireland]. Overall I think it would work. I think we could have a better government in terms of overall representation from all four countries.”
Speaking early on Friday morning moments after it was announced he was the winner, Mr Tredinnick said: “I hope in my heart that I will be able to deliver a really good service for everybody in this constituency regardless of party in the future and I hope that the outcome of this election brings about stability, peace and happiness and a stonger United Kingdom.”