With just 26 days to go before polling day, Lib Dems are heading to Devon this weekend to support Richard Foord’s campaign to overturn a 24,000 Conservative majority. Activists have come from as far away as Fife, 600 miles away, to help.

The Young Liberals are turning up in force to help, just as they did in Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire. They also produced an excellent guide to campaigning in by-elections which you can find here in the Members’ area of the ALDC website.

It’s looking busy and positive on the campaign trail and voters are well aware that we are the challengers to the Tories:

These views chime with doorstep conversations in #TivertonandHoniton – lifelong Tory voters are disgusted by what is happening in Westminster.

🍷 “No 10 is utterly delusional if they think this has gone away. It just hasn’t” #Partygate #NolanPrinciples https://t.co/MzUsHY3faf

— Eleanor Rylance 🌳🔶🇪🇺🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🐝 #Rejoin 🌎 (@EleanorRylance) May 28, 2022

Great day out chatting to residents in Tiverton with @Sandbach and the team.

Really positive conversations and clear many people are fed up of being taken for granted by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.#TivertonandHoniton 🔶 pic.twitter.com/VNgEix65sp

— Richard Foord MP (@RichardFoordLD) May 24, 2022

Out canvassing with Michael who has come down from Fife to help the ⁦@LibDems⁩ win in #TivertonAndHoniton by-election. Massive anger on the doorstep against the serial liar in 10 Downing Street. #GTTO #ProgressiveAlliance pic.twitter.com/JDBpZVGCQJ

— Prof John Timperley (@aJohnTimperley) May 26, 2022

While Richard Foord has been impressing in the media, the Independent reports that the Conservatives are keeping their candidate well out of sight of journalists so she doesn’t have to face questions about Partygate:

One local Tory says that anger about Downing Street shindigs is now so widespread in the rural Devon constituency that it has been decided Ms Hurford’s best chance of victory is to remain largely silent and hope the party’s current 24,000 majority carries her to victory.

Strategists are said to have spent time workshopping a response to difficult questions but even the favoured option – to suggest the prime minister got things wrong but it is time to move on – is considered likely to antagonise voters in an area where integrity is expected to come as standard.

If you are heading down, send us your photos to [email protected] or tag @libdemvoice in your tweets.

You can find out details of all the campaign events on Richard Foord’s website here. If you can’t make it down, do take part in the Maraphones. The next one is tomorrow afternoon between 4 pm and 6 pm.