Lib Dems set sights on borough win as leader pays a visit
Liberal Democrat party leader Sir Ed Davey came to Kent for a morale-boosting visit ahead of the local elections.
He was given a tour around the long-derelict site of a former cinema which is being converted into a multi-storey “later living” complex in Tunbridge Wells.
The party is keen to take overall control of Tunbridge Wells borough council and has targeted the Westminster constituency, held by Conservative MP Greg Clark, in the general election.
Sir Ed was flanked by council leader Ben Chapelard and parliamentary candidate Mike Martin during the one-hour visit, which also included addressing around 20 placardwaving Lib Dem activists on the town hall steps.
The leader’s visit is a significant indication of Lib Dem high command’s appraisal of the party’s likely performance in a general election in Kent. Latest polling analysis by Electoral Calculus, which crunches polling data and voting trends, shows the Lib Dems on course for 50 seats in Westminster seats with the Conservatives crashing to just 90. But it currently predicts the Tories will get back in at Tunbridge Wells with Labour coming second.
If Cllr Chapelard takes full control of the council on May 2, Mike Martin’s campaign may rise to tier one status from its current second tier standing, according to a party insider. Up the road in Maidstone, the other borough holding local elections in Kent, the Lib Dems are also increasingly hopeful of ousting the Tory-led administration.
Sir Ed’s message was clear, claiming the Tory vote in the south-east is “in freefall”.
The MP for Kingston and Surbiton said: “People feel the Tories have let them down badly in Tunbridge Wells…and the Lib Dems are on their side campaigning for a fair deal.
“We are not complacent ahead of these elections but I think that we can do it. I think we can take majority control, which would be a massive leap forward to put us in a good place to win the seat at a general election.”
He praised Mr Martin, saying people were “really impressed” by the former soldier who has a grasp of international policy but of local issues too. Mr Martin said: “The voters want change and in Tunbridge Wells, which has been historically a Conservative seat, they are sick of the incompetence, the in-fighting and the lying.” Conservative councillor at Tunbridge Wells council, Sean Holden said: “It’s going to be a tough fight for the Tories here. We had 41 members in 2019 and now we have 11 and it doesn’t mean that it will stop there. “But we can’t ignore the polls - it’s a sad story.”
Cllr Holden is stepping down from the council in May after 16 years.
Labour candidate Victoria Jones, standing in Sherwood ward, said that among her priorities are better and more affordable housing in sympathetic locations.
Labour's policies are “landing well” on the doorstep, she said.
Sir Ed refused to be drawn on other specific seats in the Lib Dems’ sights in Kent but added: “There are a few that we are looking at. What is happening across the whole of the southeast is that the Conservative vote is in freefall.
“Many traditional Conservative voters who have voted Conservative all their lives are now saying ‘never again’ and they are telling us that on the doorstep.”
The redrawn electoral boundaries of Tory Helen Grant’s Maidstone and the Weald constituency, now Maidstone and Malling, is the scene of a big local push by the Lib Dems. Should the party prosper in the Maidstone council poll next month in the wards now in the new constituency, the seat might be elevated from third tier status to the second rung.
‘Voters want change...they are sick of the incompetence, the in-fighting and the lying’