Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has said the crucial North Shropshire by-election tomorrow (Thursday 16 December) is now a “coin toss” between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.
The once ultra-safe Conservative seat is now under serious threat, amid local anger about ambulance waiting times, farmers being let down and rural communities feeling taken for granted by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.
The Liberal Democrats knocked on over 23,000 doors last weekend with over 1,000 volunteers on the ground during the final week. On eve of the poll today, Liberal Democrat candidate Helen Morgan was joined on the campaign trail by five of the party’s MPs.
Even a close second for the party would deal a major further blow to Boris Johnson’s authority in what should be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:
This crucial by-election is now a coin toss between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Throughout this campaign, lifelong Conservative voters have told us they are switching to the Liberal Democrats because they are tired of being taken for granted by Boris Johnson.
People in North Shropshire and around the country deserve a fair deal where everyone plays by the same rules – including those in Downing Street.
We know that every vote today will count, and that the future direction of the country is at stake. If Labour and Green voters lend us their support, we can deal a hammer blow to Boris Johnson and tell him that the party is over.
Liberal Democrat candidate for the North Shropshire by-election Helen Morgan said:
Today, thousands of voters in North Shropshire have a chance to send a message to Boris Johnson’s incompetent government by voting Liberal Democrat.
Residents in North Shropshire just want a fair deal where their ambulance service crisis is solved, farmers are backed and the area is no longer taken for granted.
We have a once in a generation chance to send a message to the Government today to end the decades of Conservatives taking us for granted, we should take our opportunity.
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10 Comments
The vibe at the campaign HQ is really good and we need to make the very most we can in this seat and that means win it. As Caron says, ‘Even a close second for the party would deal a major further blow to Boris Johnson’s authority’ but a close second place would not anything for us – We need to win.
Helen is a great local candidate. Lots of Lib Dems have been out there already. working their socks off to make it happen.
Please do everything you can to help bring this victory home.
I am glad that the focus has been on door knocking. For far too long there has been an over concentration on leaflets. My experience in Ruyton and Market Drayton is that winning in possible if there is enough help today
Scenario–Johnson heavily pushing virus, stay at home.Less elderly (Conservative voters?) come out to vote.Door knocking,taking them to the vote we get our vote out.Johnson looses. claims it is of virus not dissatisfaction why less voted.We win.I can dream!!
Mick, door knocking is a viable option at by-elections. But in a GE, in how many constituencies do we have enough local members for a serious knock up?
Chris. Door knocking is always a viable proposition. We ALWAYS knocked on doors before we started mass leafleting in the 70s/80s. The problem has been abandoning door knocking and doing nothing but leaflets. Of course it’s difficult to knock on 23000 doors in one weekend in a GE but it is critical, if you want too win, to do as much of it as possible and to train more people to do it too.
Quite apart from anything else, if you don’t knock – or phone – then you can’t get the information necessary to run a successful GOTV.
Perhaps the trick is to practise. When I was a councillor, I used to knock on a huge number of doors both during and between elections. If every ward running a serious local election campaign do this during local elections then you can build up a database of people to call on during a GE.
Yes, there are far too many seats where we have no viable organisation at all, due to the long term targeting strategy we have followed with decreasing success. The party should be aiming to start building ups our organisation ward by ward, constituency by constituency so that we can run a fully fledged national campaign, when the GE comes.
Ok. I bow to your love of door knocking.
Before I moved abroad I was active in Oxford, Woking and Horsham. I did do a lot of knocking up and also getting the vote out on the day knocking. It was effective, but very labour intense. And not for everyone, of course.
My best knock up was in county elections in Woking. The door was opened by a human being of another gender in the nude. Bountiful smell of marijuana wafted out into the porch.
Bit surprised, but dutifully stuck to my script.
“It’s a two-horse race here in Horsell.”
“Is it lover?”
“Yes, I assure you.”
“I love horses.”
“Right. Do you? Why’s that?”
“Yes, because they are so well….”
Better leave it there for today.
@Chris Moore (I’ll ignore the “ya”) – Love the story!
You will enjoy this post, and particularly the stories in the comments: https://www.libdemvoice.org/whats-your-funniest-canvassing-story-44872.html
Thanks for the link, Mary!
Looks like a great result is coming out later this morning. Truly stunning. Now we have to organise better and more quickly than we have ever done before in time for the next set of elections in May.
Oh yes and congratulations to Helen and her team of dedicated Lib Dems who worked so hard to make the most of this opportunity for all of us.