Portsmouth Liberal Democrats last night selected Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson for the Portsmouth South seat currently held by independent MP Mike Hancock.
Gerald is leader of the Liberal Democrats in Portsmouth and at the Local Government Association. He was leader of Portsmouth Council until earlier this year, with an impressive record of delivering for the people of Portsmouth. Here’s what he had to say:
It is a privilege to have been chosen to fight Portsmouth South. I want to thank Tam Langley and David McBride for the campaign. It has been a vigorous, active but friendly selection. We have all shared a clear vision for Portsmouth and belief in the people of our city. I am looking forward to get out tomorrow to campaign for the positive, practical and liberal policies which offer real hope for the future.
Portsmouth South enjoyed a Liberal Democrat majority of 12.6% over the Conservatives at the 2010 General Election. Control of the council, which includes Portsmouth North, was maintained up to the UKIP surge earlier this year. It remains to be seen what effect fall-out from the Mike Hancock scandal will have, but on local results and campaigning, this is a strong Lib Dem seat.
You can read more in The News, and from Portsmouth Liberal Democrats.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Evaluating different electoral systems for the House of Commons
Chris Isaak: Wicked Game
Brexit and summer holidays
The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
Peter Martin
Peter Davies
David Wright
Kira Collins
14 Comments
Well, that is a shame and a wasted opportunity to get one of our fantastic female approved candidates (I mean really, this woman has a really senior career, grew up in the constituency, is an experienced candidate, has bags of energy and really wants to change the status quo) into an approved seat. I really do despair of this party.
@ Jo Christie-Smith
I absolutely agree. This is the quite brilliant women candidate http://tamoralangley.nationbuilder.com/ who would have moved the local party on from its recent troubles.
So Jo and Keith, you’re saying this is a “wasted opportunity”. So what are saying happened: that the LibDems in Porstmouth made the wrong choice? That they should have chosen Tamora and shunned someone who has been leader of the city council for ten years, a very hard working councillor, chair of the LGA, an experienced agent, a LibDem campaigns trainer, a political campaigns genius and a remarkably, personable, conciliatory and dynamic operator because he was a man and there was a very good female candidate? Surely the time to start dispairing of our party is when we second guess local party members taking a democratic decision, is it not? Or are you saying that the local party in Portsmouth South should not have had the option of choosing Gerald and instead should have been presented with an all-women short list?
And Keith you say that Tamora would have ‘moved the local party on from its recent troubles’. I don’t doubt that. I don’t doubt Gerald’s ability to do so either. But are you saying that Portsmouth South LibDem members aren’t able themselves to make the judgment about who can move the local party on “from its recent troubles”? Or are you saying that the local party shouldn’t be allowed to make that judgment? Or are you saying a man can’t possibly move the local party on from its recent troubles, just because he’s a man? Or are you saying that Portsmouth South Lib Dems don’t want to move on from their recent troubles?
Certainly Gerald has been an excellent local campaigner and leader of Portsmouth for many years. Has Tamara that level of experience?
As someone who has worked with the Portsmouth Liberal Democrats I can attest that the local party was in safe hands with either of those candidates. I think Tam would of , and will, make a fantastic local MP one day. I have no doubt she would be a fantastic asset to the party. However, the local party has made the decision and ,as noted above, Gerald is an incredible force in the city and after years of hard work I think well deserved the selection.
I speak as a member of Portsmouth and Portsmouth South Local Party and executive. I was at the hustings last night and all three candidates made persuasive speeches and answered members questioned. Clearly we had a choice between to able and experienced campaigners. I was disappointed that my chosen candidate lost, , Tam has proven herself to be enthusiastic, engaging, responsive and extremely knowledgable: I am certain Tam will be welcomed by any constituency and become a valuable MP for them and the Lib Dems. In the end though, tam didn’t convince enough of the members to give her the number 1 vote in the ballot.
Gerald, is a seasoned political leader. The Portsmouth we have now is not the one inherited 12 years ago; a shame we lost control this June, as there is still much to do. The growing infrastructure, the continued support for the Royal Navy (GVJ was instrumental in making sure the carriers are docked here), aiding the Portsmouth supporters Trust in taking over the football club, the community hub built in one of the most deprived areas in the city, a new library built whilst others in the country were being closed or sold off and slowly but surely the education of the children in the city is beginning to show major improvements.
These are but a few of the achievements Gerald has overseen whilst Leader of the council and Lib Dem Group (of course the Lib Dem councillors and volunteers take credit too). I do not feel we have missed a chance. Gerald will make an excellent MP for us.
I am sorry Tam didn’t win, but it was a democratic vote, now the members fully support Gerald and keep the tories out of Portsmouth South.
As regards Gerald, he is an LGBT parliamentary candidate and we should welcome and celebrate that diversity. I am a member of Portsmouth local party. And we had three incredibly talented candidates. Clearly Tam has a very bright future in the party. And I and my fellow members had to weigh up the candidates in the round. This does not mean that we were biased against a woman because she was a woman and I resent that suggestion and I suspect if anything the opposite was the case . As you can imagine with three very capable candidates we have had three very active campaigns with a lot of literature and I and think most of the members had discussions with the candidates and we have taken, I think, taken our duty very seriously. I certainly have. But it is a question of looking at the candidates in the round.
The good news is that Tam has indicated that she will be continuing to help us in Portsmouth. And we have a very talented and hard working team not just Gerald and Tam but a whole group of people that Gerald (and indeed Tam) has been very instrumental in supporting – young, old, middle aged – male and female.
Gerald is a phenomenally capable campaigner and has built up the local party from essentially 6 local Lib Dem councillors to 19 since he has been here. We have also had success and increased our position during the coalition years. While in addition Gerald as usual has been very active as usual supporting campaigns and council groups and elections around the country.
As regards Mike Hancock, he did apologise but apologised for a lot, lot less than was alleged against him. Our opponents luckily have one message which is to kick Mike which is now wearing extremely thin with the electorate I am finding. During Gerald’s leadership of the council we opened a new library, kept all children’s centres, and kept weekly bin collections. We have been successful because people have told me that they would prefer to live in Portsmouth with that record than where their relatives live where their library is now shut and they have fortnightly bin collections and children’s centres are decimated. So Gerald has a massive record to campaign on here in Portsmouth.
In contrast two months of a Conservative administration has seen them scrap a popular residents parking zone at a cost of £90,000 without consulting a single resident. Axe a team that would have cost the council nothing to tackle dog mess and litter. And propose building 500 houses on one of the last green spaces left in South Portsmouth. I know who I would want to represent Portsmouth. And I suspect the electorate are increasing coming round to that view as well. Oh and by the way – UKIP and Labour have handed over the keys to the council to the Conservatives by agreeing to let the Tories have all the cabinet council seats and therefore make most of the decision. The Tories have 12 out of 42 councillors (Labour 4, UKIP 7).
We had a rise in the UKIP vote this May and unfortunately all the circumstances this tipped them over the edge of winning in some of our held seats as well as those in Labour and the Tories. We “won” Portsmouth South based on this year’s local election results. But obviously Portsmouth South will be a tough fight. And I would urge Lib Dems to come and help us. Particularly as Gerald has helped countless Lib Dems around the country over some thirty years. We have a really good story and message to tell with Gerald and the Lib Dems in Portsmouth. We need sheds load of help to tell it.
Regarding Michael’s comment above, I too would urge members of, how shall I put it politely, less strategically considered seat, to help us during the campaign.
I am sure Gerald will be a excellent – that does not take away from the fact that as a party we need to be presenting and electing a team of people who reflect the people of Britain. Gerald is undoubtedly an exception in terms of his local campaigning record compared to many of our an PPCs. I hope Tam is soon elected onto the Council and takes up where Gerald left off, doing a fantastic job for the people of Portsmouth. Then when we have STV we can have two Lib Dems MPs covering the Portsmouth/Eastleigh bit of South Hampshire.
I am tempted to ask “who is Tamora?” I am sure she is one impressive woman but what has she actually achieved?
Gerald’s record is there for all to see and I find it astonishing that it should be eclipsed by the feminist priority.
Perhaps Mike Hancock’s record should be remembered. He served Portsmouth people for 42 years and that is why he won a Tory seat, lost it then regained and held it. He has suffered trial by media and suffered the consequences but some of us value a man genuinely dedicated to Portsmouth people. Make no mistake, without Mike Hancock this would still be a safe Tory seat.
BrianD is absolutely right to say that Portsmouth South wouldn’t be a Lib. Dem. seat without the sheer hard work and personal popularity of Mike Hancock who has served Portsmouth well for over 42 years. Whatever the events of the past couple of years and the media reaction to them, Mike’s achievements before then shouldn’t be airbrushed out of history.
I too wish Gerald well. He too is tremendously hard-working but he faces a very tough fight to hold the Portsmouth South seat especially as the vile Conservative-supporting cabal in Portsmouth who have hounded Hancock in recent years are now directing their bile at Gerald.
Shame. I really do not know what else to say. Ugh.
I am disappointed that once again we have come back to ‘a missed opportunity for a woman’ debate rather than best candidate for the job. It is the reason I dislike all women shortlists. If I achieve something I would want to know it was because I was the best person for it, not because I am a woman.
As someone who has worked closely with Gerald over the years, I can assure he will put all he has into this election as he has done (and been successful) in previous years. I have no doubt Tam will be great as an MP, however a more local, experienced candidate won a democratic vote. It is neither our right nor anyone else’s to criticise and ‘unpick’ that. Simple basics of democracy guys!