Redcar Liberal Democrats have selected their local party Chair and Deputy Leader of their council group Josh Mason to fight the seat at the General Election. Current Liberal Democrat MP Ian Swales announced in July that he was standing down.
From Ian Swales’ website:
Local man Josh, who is chair of the party, has worked very closely with Ian for the past 4 years supporting his campaigns for jobs, on flooding, against intrusive wind turbines, saving post offices and for better use of Redcar Hospital. Josh also sits on the board of Coast and Country Housing, is a local school governor, and represents Redcar’s Zetland Ward as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. Josh has spent the last four years campaigning hard against council waste. He has led calls to freeze council tax for the last three years and called for George Dunning’s resignation. Josh strongly opposed the council’s Draft Local Plan and has repeatedly campaigned for action to be taken on TunedIn, the council’s failing new youth facility.
Ian Swales described 26 year old Josh as “an outstanding talent of the next generation.” He has represented Zetland ward on the Council since 2011 and is currently the spokesperson on culture, leisure and tourism.
Josh said of his selection:
I’m thrilled to have been selected to stand in place of Ian Swales who has been a popular and hardworking MP.
He will certainly be a hard act to follow but after working with him so closely over the years, I’m well aware of the constituency’s needs and feel well equipped to speak up for us locally and in Parliament.
I grew up here, my family live here and I care deeply about the area’s future. I want to be an approachable, hardworking local MP and I will fight as hard as I can to ensure the best for our area.
The Liberal Democrats won Redcar with a swing of 22% from Labour in 2010 and Josh will defend Ian Swales’ majority of just over 5200.
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3 Comments
Dare one mention the latest Lord Ashcroft polls has the Lib Dems running 3rd in Redcar. In Chippenham, unprompted voting intention put the Lib Dems on 16% and 4th place It is only when prompted to think about voting in your particular constituency that the Lib Dems climb up to 24%, still a massively behind the Tories on 39%.
Now I know what the ‘plan’ is – Lib Dems will benefit from the incumbency especially in places with a hardworking new elected MP, like Chippenham- probably the first Liberal MP in Wiltshire since 1923. No one can deny Duncan Hames is a hard working campaigning local MP but he could easily come 4th in 2015. And what happens to us in the seats we lose and no longer have incumbency to help us after 2015?
Ashcroft polling is very very bad, nay awful, for Lib Dems probably the worst for some time, but predictable given everything that has and is happening. Of the 24 constituencies where the Lib Dems have an MP or high aspirations polling seems to indicate two % ties, six wins and 16 defeats, the latter often by large margins, Redcar is one, in fact I think we are third there.Nationally we are now 7% and falling. But of course there will the nonsensical optimistic noises at conference which 95% of the public will scoff and laugh at. The future is bright but not for this party. Can we not change the leader and get someone different , with a different perception in place, do they have to be a MP, I would favour our leader from Wales.
Josh will win. You heard it here first.