Wimbledon is the Party’s closest target seat in England , with a Tory majority of just 628 and the Merton Party are now looking for a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate to win it at the next General Election. It needs a swing of just 0.6% to turn Wimbledon orange.
Could you be the candidate that turns another London constituency orange?
The excellent result in the General Election was the result of years of campaigning by the local party and came after five gains at the elections in May 2018 and the first by-election gain from Labour in London for a decade in June 2019
The Shortlisting Committee are seeking a diverse range of candidates to put to our members and there is no requirement that they live in the constituency. Having had good results in the recent Greater London Authority elections, our next challenge is the Borough elections in May 2022. We will be expecting the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PCC), even if they are not standing themselves play key role in our campaigning in these. We have a great record on the Council which we will be making sure residents know about – such as our campaign to get the Council to pay the London Living Wage. We have ambitious targets for next year but there are boundary changes which don’t help.
Anyone who wants to become the PPC to win Wimbledon will have to work very hard, be able to motivate party members to help, not just those in Merton but from across London, and will need to be able to deal with the press attention a target seat PPC will bring. There is absolutely no complacency in the local party – we know that if we are to get the support from Lib Dem HQ, London Region and the wider party that we need to win at the next General Election, we can’t rely on how well we did in 2019 – we need to demonstrate that we are out campaigning, canvassing and fund raising so that we can join the ‘Golden Crescent’ in South West London of Richmond, Twickenham and Kingston.
Further information for approved PPCs can be found on the Party website – the closing date is 21 June.
* Simon McGrath is a councillor in Wimbledon and a member of the board of Liberal Reform.
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13 Comments
And, for less experienced candidates, you can also apply for the Mitcham and Morden seat, which is also a great chance to get involved in the fight for Wimbledon.
If we want to create a more diverse body of parliamentary candidates, it might be worth making the list of available candidacies and application deadlines more obvious on the party website. Does such a list even exist?
Even approved candidates don’t seem to get emailed details of the opening of future nominations, let along ordinary members thinking about applying for approval to be a candidate for the first time. I wonder how many otherwise excellent candidates are lost?
James
the list is on the Party website https://www.libdems.org.uk/selection_adverts and approved ppcs get an e mail every week with the latest vacancies
Hi Simon,
I know of at least three approved candidates who aren’t receiving updates. One of them would be ideal for the role, in my opinion.
Andrew — thanks. can i suggest you ask them to contact the canddiates office ?
Hi Simon – Thanks, I’m approved and had to do the upgrade for the PCC elections but don’t receive anything. Nor does a friend of mine so not sure what has happened. It looks there may be a problem with the list…
James – if you send me your e mail i will pass it on – simonmcgrath at gmail.com
Any chance of a discussion thread starting with regards to the proposed new constituency boundaries? Tim Farron seems to have been hit particularly badly – his seat appears to have been carved up and redistributed three ways, leaving him with little to build on.
@john – Sounds like a good idea ! Can i suggest you write an article about them and send to LDV ?
@ John Bicknell – It’s worse than that. The constituency Tim serves (Westmorland and Lonsdale) has been split into four parts – one part to Barrow, one to Copeland (only joined by very difficult roads), one part into Lancashire (Morecambe, but not Lancaster), and the rest to Eden (currently most of Penrith and the Border – Rory Stewart’s ex seat).
@ John, Michael, and David,
You might want to ask why we have to have continuously redrawn constituency boundaries. It’s almost certainly as a result of net population movements, which create a need for extra constituencies in the SE of England and fewer in the rest of the UK.
I would suggest it is a symptom of our economic failings. It would make more sense for the net flow of population to be in the opposite direction and away from the more densely populated SE region and towards the peripheral regions where there is more space and less need to provide new infrastructure, new housing and extra schools etc.
But do we have the sense to create the right economic conditions for this to occur? I’m not optimistic.
“It’s almost certainly as a result of net population movements, which create a need for extra constituencies in the SE of England and fewer in the rest of the UK.”
And if we had some form of PR with multi-member seats boundaries wouldn’t need to be redrawn in the first place.
@ David Evans David, if anybody can cope with this it’s Tim, and I strongly suggest he goes for the link with the Eden District part of old Westmorland.
There is a huge Liberal potential for a hard working campaigning Liberal candidate in the Eden Valley provided work goes into building up an organisation on the same lines as he has already done in South Lakeland….. and if people gets on with it now.
Best of Luck….. Tim certainly deserves it.