‘North Shropshire result is a watershed moment’
LOSS REFLECTS TORY PARTY’S GOVERNANCE FAILURE, SAYS LIB DEMS LEADER
THE party’s over for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. Just in the last few weeks there has been scandal after scandal – from Peppa Pig World and Owen Paterson to Downing Street Christmas parties.
I’ve never seen anything like it. The phrase ‘one rule for them, another for the rest of us’ has resonated with so many, because it is so clearly true.
But it’s not just those recent revelations which have contributed to the Conservative party’s recent slump in the opinion polls. Different and diverse communities across the country are fed up with being taken for granted and are crying out for an alternative to years of neglect.
Many Conservative MPs are looking over their shoulders nervously at the alternative; and in many Conservative seats, that will be a Liberal Democrat local champion – someone who lives in their communities, shares their concerns, and campaigns with them to demand better.
Those factors came together last week in North Shropshire, the most significant by-election result in British politics in decades. The Liberal Democrats overturned a 23,000 majority in a seat which had been Conservative for over a century. It is the biggest majority overturned in 28 years.
And what made it all the more remarkable was that it was the second stunning by-election victory for the Liberal Democrats this year. The previous – Chesham and Amersham back in June – similarly took place in a constituency which had voted Conservative for decades.
The last time the Liberal Democrats won two by-elections from the Conservatives in a single year was 1993.
These two by-election wins have taken place in two very different places, rural Shropshire and the leafy commuter belt in Buckinghamshire. But voters in these two areas spoke for millions of people around the country, because it’s communities throughout the United Kingdom who are not being listened to by this government. That includes British Asian communities, like in my own constituency of Kingston and Surbiton, who have too often been taken for granted. It’s not right that these communities, who so greatly enrich British society, are too often ignored. The Liberal Democrats can and will offer an alternative. We will listen where others simply walk on by. This result is a watershed moment for British politics. It offers hope to millions of people wanting a brighter future. Twice now this year, we have seen communities which have voted Conservative for decades, if not centuries, say ‘enough is enough’. People are fed up, not just with Boris Johnson – with his lack of integrity, with his failure to provide leadership during the pandemic, with his ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude – but with the Conservatives as a whole. The Tories are more interested in waging internal political warfare than representing the people who elected them. They put self-interest ahead of the national interest.
Again and again on the campaign trail in North Shropshire, I spoke to people who just wanted their concerns to be taken seriously. From the biggest towns like Oswestry to the smallest villages like Myddle, people not only understand the scale of the problem but also the action that needs to be taken. Cuts to local ambulances, leaving people waiting for hours for emergency services to even turn up. Long waits at hospitals when they eventually get there. The state of the local roads, the rising levels of crime. These are very basics of public service delivery; if you like, the contract between the elected and the communities they serve. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have failed to deliver on that contract.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a fair deal where everyone plays by the same rules, including those in Downing Street. We will be the champions of communities who have been let down time and again by this Conservative government. And we will fight for that fair deal with good schools, safe streets, and high-quality healthcare.
That’s why voters in different parts of the country are choosing to put their trust in a hard-working local Liberal Democrat who will listen to their concerns, raise them in parliament, and campaign to deliver for their community.