When will Dr Lee go?

As a former Conservative Party member, parliamentary candidate and national executive committee member, I would like to have a decent Conservative candidate to vote for at the next general election.

So, when will Bracknell Conservatives finally get round to deselecting Phillip Lee as their candidate for the next election?

I ask because, in so many ways, he has proved to be a bad representative for the area.

He has completely ignored the main plank of the last Conservative manifesto. He did not vote for a single option that would take the UK out of the EU in the recent votes in Parliament.

He only voted either to extend Article 50 further, or hold a second referendum (on what exactly?).

Even Ken Clarke, who is well known as pro EU, supported a soft Brexit Common Market 2.0.

So what was Phillip Lee thinking when he voted, effectively to stay? We know he thinks the Conservative manifesto he stood on is “irrelevant” (his words), and that he thinks Teresa May’s deal is a “turd” (again, his words). Such thinking is not really compatible with being Bracknell’s Conservative

MP.

On Europe, he is out of step with his constituency (to whom Parliament delegated the decision on whether to leave the EU).

I have read his comments that “it is impossible to know how Bracknell Constituency voted in the referendum”.

Actually Dr Chris Hanretty of the University of East Anglia did the research, and says 53.25% of Bracknell electors voted leave. If Phillip Lee unaware of this, he does insufficient research to do an MP’s job properly. If he is aware of this then he is being untruthful to the electorate, again something for which he should be deselected.

But, it is not just his view on Europe which cause me to think he should go.

In the House of Commons (26 October 2012), he proposed that all the existing local hospitals serving the are be closed in favour of one in Maidenhead. Obviously, he has not tried getting from Bracknell or Finchampstead to Maidenhead in the rush hour, or this would have struck him as an unacceptable plan.

He has several times expressed the view, in the House of Commons (July 3, 2013) and elsewhere, that all the pharmacies in Bracknell constituency should be closed, removing a source of healthcare advice and placing still more pressure on our GP surgeries and A&E departments.

He claims £2,500 per month in rent on a flat in London (IPSA expense register 2018-19), despite the fact that he lives nearer to his office in Westminster than many people in his constituency who have to commute into London on a daily basis.

I am not alone in my view, even amongst potential Conservative voters- several have expressed views to me such as “if the Conservatives want to keep this a safe seat, they’d better choose a different candidate!”.

So, please can Bracknell Conservatives get a candidate that more of us could support? Richard Arturi-Thomas, Finchampstead