‘Celebrity’ campaigner aims to win Welsh seat
LIB Dem leader Jo Swinson has welcomed outspoken anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray becoming a General Election candidate for the party in Wales.
Mr Bray has become famous for appearing in the background of news broadcasts from outside Parliament holding placards opposing EU withdrawal.
Ms Swinson insisted he should not be seen as a joke candidate in the Cynon Valley seat.
Speaking at a rally in Cardiff yesterday, she said: “Our candidates are chosen by local and national parties, so the constituency will have chosen Steve as a candidate.
“He is a Liberal Democrat member and he is a passionate campaigner.
“He has been well-known within the Remain cause more widely and I am sure he will bring that energy to the campaign here in Wales.”
Asked how she would respond to people who might view him as a joke candidate like Screaming Lord Sutch, Ms Swinson said: “I would respectfully say that I disagree and he is somebody who is true to his values and cares very deeply.
“I think we do want to have our politicians care about the issues that they are addressing. I think Steve is an example of somebody who very clearly does just that.”
Mr Bray, 50, from Port Talbot, has gained the nickname “Mr No Brexit” for his antics outside the Commons on College Green.
Ms Swinson, launching the party’s Welsh General Election campaign in the capital yesterday, claimed the Lib Dems were set to win “many more” seats in Wales, but refused to set a target figure.
Out of 40 constituency in Wales, the Lib Dems are looking to improve on the single seat they won at the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election earlier this year.
Meanwhile Ms Swinson last night pledged a funding boost to tackle knife crime, if the Lib Dems gain power.
She said the party would adopt a public health approach to dealing with youth violence.
The party said the annual £500m fund for England would be ring fenced and “provide young people with positive, safe and healthy opportunities to prevent them being drawn into youth violence and gang-related crime”.
The funding would be England-only as education is a devolved matter, but the party said extra money would be made available to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Lib Dems insisted they would also make local youth services a statutory provision, which they say would protect them from future cuts.
The party said the next UK government should model its policies on tackling youth violence on the approach taken by Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit.
This would involve identifying risk factors and treating them early on, with youth workers, police, teachers, health professionals and social services all working closely together to prevent young people falling into gangs and violence.
Ms Swinson said: “We are in a knife crime epidemic, but successive governments have taken the wrong approach to dealing with it.
“For 25 years, Conservative and Labour governments have been competing to seem tough on crime, without doing enough to actually prevent crime.
“Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future for young people by investing £500 million a year in youth services and taking a public health approach to youth violence.
“With a Liberal Democrat government, young people will have the support and opportunities they deserve, our communities will be stronger and people will feel safer.”