The energetic Daisy Cooper, whose spirited campaign made her runner-up in the Party’s Presidential Election in 2014 despite a late entry into the contest, is now the PPC for St Albans.
Since her selection last August, she has been campaigning strongly on the issues that matter to the heavily Remain voting citizens of St Albans.
This is in contrast to the local Brexiteer Tory MP Anne Main, whose greatest contribution to recent national debate was encouraging countryside walkers to flick away their dog poo. Her advice was contradicted by people who know about these things – the South Downs National Park.
Yesterday, Daisy spoke to the Herts Advertiser to say that she was ready for a snap election:
“It is not wholly surprising, but I welcome the opportunity for the people of St Albans to have their say, and I look forward to campaigning.
“63% of St Albans voted to ‘Remain’, as championed by the Lib Dems, and many more oppose the reckless decision of this hard-right Conservative government to pursue a ‘hard Brexit’”
“The Labour Party is in an absolute mess, so Theresa May saw an opportunity. I think she is prepared to lose seats to the Liberal Democrats.”
A recent internal poll by the Conservative party predicted they could lose the 27 seats they gained from the Lib Dems at the last election.
Ms Cooper said: “I will be campaigning full-time from today until 8 June and making the case that anyone who wants to avoid a disastrous hard Brexit, keep Britain in the single market, and who wants Great Britain to remain open, tolerant and united, the only party to vote for is the Liberal Democrats.”
I was on the Federal Executive with Daisy from 2013-2015. She was fantastic to work with – a very good strategic mind, a motivating manager and someone who has absolutely no fear of asking the awkward question. I worked closely with her again on the Electing Diverse MPs motion. She led the campaign for it, building the case before and during the Conference.
This afternoon came the news that the cross Party St Albans for Europe group is backing her. On their Facebook page they said:
St Albans for Europe is delighted to announce we will be backing Daisy Cooper, the LibDem candidate for St Albans. Daisy is very much a pro-European and has shown a willingness to listen to the concerns of local residents on Brexit as well as other issues. This is a cross-party group, but now is the time to get behind one pro-European candidate.
She would be a great addition to our MPs. If you can help get her elected, here’s how.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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4 Comments
Early days but what appears to be happening is that Labour working class brexiteers are switching to the Tories and a number of Tory remainers, including several known to me, are coming to us. The key is to make that trickle a flood and get Labour remainers to support us as well. Seats like St Albans and Watford could be interesting.
Just so we are geared up to start, could someone alter the number of MPs as shown on Lib Dem page from 8 to 9
Please see Commons Hansard for 19/4/2017. The incumbent Tory seems to be rattled.
I agree Roger. I think the Tories have pulled off an amazing trick, convincing those who have suffered under their policies that it’s all the fault of the EU and migrants and persuading them to vote Tory not Labour. Corbyn is seen as a poor leader who hasn’t helped them at all.
We have the run up to the election to persuade them to vote for us instead. Our social policies will be crucial.