Former Welsh Assembly member Eluned Parrott has been selected to fight the constituency of Cardiff Central which, until 2015 was held by Jenny Willott.
Eluned fought the seat for the Welsh Assembly last year and came within 1000 votes of victory.
From the Cardiff Lib Dem website:
The Lib Dems are odds-on favourite to win Cardiff Central (at 4/6 with Betfair on Monday morning), and have been endorsed by pro-EU newspaper The New European as the clear choice in the fight against a hard Brexit.
Eluned Parrott said:
“I hadn’t intended to come back into politics, but Brexit changed everything. I can’t simply stand by and let our country be ripped apart by hatred and division.“I want to represent Cardiff Central in Parliament to fight Theresa May’s divisive Hard Brexit, both for the majority here who voted Remain and the many who voted Leave but want to stay in the Single Market.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party isn’t providing Britain with a real opposition to this Conservative Brexit Government. That’s why people are turning to the Liberal Democrats in droves – as you can see by the dozens of by-election wins we have had across Britain, including one right here in Cardiff.
“The choice in Cardiff Central is clear: Corbyn’s Labour party who rolled over to back the Tories’ Hard Brexit, or the Liberal Democrats who will fight for an open, tolerant and united country.”
In the past year, by-election victories and a doubling of membership has strengthened our position in the Cardiff seat. Good luck to Eluned. She is such an excellent speaker and her work on mental health in the last Assembly was brilliant. And, boy, can she sing, as I saw at the Welsh Lib Dems’ Conference Karaoke last year.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Llandow, 1950: The worst air disaster the world had seen
Electoral Calculus's local election predictions
Are memories like a row of telegraph poles?
Dundee - designing resilience into a fragile urban landscape
Potential job losses multiply from NHS England
tom arms
Simon R
Alan Jelfs
Peter Hirst
8 Comments
Go get it Eluned. I am confident the council gains for your team next week will give you the springboard for Westminster.
My initial thoughts are ones of confusion. In the statement it seems that Brexit is the main force for returning to politics but in Jo Stevens Cardiff Central has one of the most pro-EU politicians there is, certainly in the Labour party and probably in Westminster also. In other posts (and indeed in this statement) on this page it suggests that the Lib Dems are targeting pro-leave MPs but this simply isn’t the case here.
Why not go after Cardiff North? Craig Williams, Tory MP, may have campaigned for Remain but fell into line and backed Article 50 despite Cardiff voting to remain in the EU. He, according to his voting record summary on They Work For You, votes against UK membership in the EU and against the rights of EU citizens living in the UK remaining here.
In terms of Brexit MP’s (in terms of MP’s in general) Eluned Parrot would represent Cardiff very well, Jo Stevens would represent Cardiff very well and Craig Williams would not.
The person in politics with the most remarkable name !
Someone needs to campaign against Craig Williams!!1
Why go after Cardiff Central rather than North? Because we held Central until the last election and we can win it back. By all means also fight North, but it would be difficult to excuse not making a big effort in any seat we stood a good chance of winning.
“Why go after Cardiff Central rather than North? Because we held Central until the last election and we can win it back?”
I think this is the key point. I haven’t forgotten that Jo Steven’s team criticised Jenny Willott over tuition fees despite Willott dropping from front bench to back bench in order to vote against it – I was vocally critical of Jo Stevens at the time – but it seems to be reversed now. This is primarily an election fight born before Brexit where it’s not about challenging pro-leave candidates and more about about targeting winnable seats. However, it’s going to be a real kick in the teeth to still have Craig Williams represent Cardiff when either Jo Stevens or Eluned will miss out and either could seriously challenge him.
DJ,
I am afraid that political parties fight winnable seats, not unwinnable ones. The Liberal Democrats start in 5th place on 3.8% in Cardiff North
Jo Stevens should consider her position in the Labour Party if her views are so out of line with the official Labour point of view. I imagine if she had defected to the Liberal Democrats a few months ago we would not be fighting her. As it is, her Party are a big part of the problem, not part of the solution. And we all remember how the Labour Party targeted the Liberal Democrats in 2015
This looks like our best prospect for a gain in Wales. Good luck Eluned!