Who wants your vote? General election candidates unveiled
MORE than a dozen candidates have put their names forward in the New Forest and Christchurch for what has been described as the most significant general election in a generation.
The deadline for candidates’ nominations closed yesterday (Thursday) with a total of 13 people making it onto the ballot papers to contest the three constituencies of New Forest East, New Forest West and Christchurch.
The trio of sitting Conservatives, who have each held their seats since 1997, have all been re-selected by their local parties to battle challengers from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
In Christchurch Tory Sir Chris Chope made a stuttering start when he reportedly failed to gain the backing of the local party’s executive committee although he was approved by the membership.
He has faced fierce criticism – including from fellow Tories – for his habit of blocking popular private members’ bills, including a ban on taking photos up women’s skirts.
In New Forest West, Tory Sir Desmond Swayne was boosted by the Brexit Party’s Robin Horne standing down after leader Nigel Farage announced on Monday that his party would not contest the 317 seats won by the Tories in 2017, for fear of splitting the pro-Leave vote.
Mr Horne was withdrawing “reluctantly and regretfully”, he told the A&T, with his team having distributed thousands of leaflets around the constituency.
“The support has exceeded my wildest dreams,” he said. “I firmly believe that had we continued and fought the election we would have done remarkably well, such was the level of support.”
The avowedly Remain parties of the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have not made any electoral pacts locally, as they have in other areas of the country.
Despite the Lib Dems having a greater presence on local councils, they were beaten by Labour into third place across the area in the 2017 general election.
In the New Forest the Lib Dems will be hoping to build on their relative resurgence in the local elections earlier this year when they swelled their numbers on the district council from two to 13.
A seat with wider local interest is Meon Valley in Hampshire where the Tories' candidate will be Flick Drummond. As reported in the A&T, she was chosen to stand for the party to be the county's police and crime commissioner in the elections in May next year after the current office-holder, Michael Lane, was deselected.
New Forest West
In New Forest West Sir Desmond will face former fellow Conservative Nick Bubb, who is standing for the Green Party. Mr Bubb was a Tory member of Lymington and Pennington Town Council until standing down in May.
Running for Labour is Ringwood resident and former teacher Jo Graham. The Liberal Democrats’ candidate is Jack Davies, a New Forest district and Lymington town councillor.
In 2017 New Forest West was won by Sir Desmond with 33,170 votes (66.8%) followed by Labour’s Jo Graham on 9,739, Liberal Democrat Terry Scriven 4,781, Green Janet Richards 1,454, and the Pirate Party’s Des Hjerling 483.
New Forest East
In New Forest East, voters will choose between Julie Hope (Labour), Bob Johnston (Liberal Democrat), Nicola Jolly (Green), Andrew Knight (Animal Welfare Party – People, Animals, Environment) and Julian Lewis (Conservative).
Dr Lewis is defending his 2017 majority of 62.6% (32,162 votes). Second was Labour’s Julie Renyard (running this year as Julie Hope) on 10,167 votes followed by Liberal Democrat David Harrison on 7,786, and Green Henry Mellor 1,251.
Christchurch
In Christchurch the confirmed candidates are Sir Chris Chope (Conservative), Mike Cox (Liberal Democrat), Andrew Dunne (Labour) and Chris Rigby (Green).
Sir Chris won Christchurch in 2017 with 35,230 votes (69.6%) followed by Labour’s Patrick Canavan on 10,059, Liberal Democrat Michael Cox 4,020, and Green Chris Rigby 1,325.
The town will hold a hustings for voters to put questions to the candidates at Twynham School on Tuesday 26th November from 7pm-9pm, organised by a group of local churches.
Polling day
Polling day is on Thursday 12th December, with voting in the New Forest being organised by the district council, and in Christchurch by BCP Council.
Applications for postal votes must be submitted to the relevant local authority no later than 5pm on Tuesday 26th November.
Residents not already on the electoral register will only be able to vote if they add their names by midnight on Tuesday 26th November.
Application forms to vote by proxy must be submitted no later than 5pm on Wednesday 4th December.
To register to vote go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
As polling day approaches, the A&T will be publishing an election address from each of the candidates as they try to persuade residents to vote for them.