Winchester Liberal Democrats select Jackie Porter as PPC for 2015 election

By NewsHound | Wed 19th June 2013 - 8:04 am

From the Winchester Liberal Democrats website:

Winchester Liberal Democrats have elected popular Hampshire County Councillor Jackie Porter to be their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) to fight the next General Election.

Jackie was re-elected to the County Council in May when she received more than half the votes cast in her seat.

Jackie Porter said: “I am delighted to have this opportunity. I’ve lived in Winchester, Kings Worthy and then Itchen Abbas for more than 30 years. My children were born and went to school here. I’ve been very grateful for the chance I’ve had to serve my local community as a County Councillor. I’m keen to do the same for the whole of Winchester and Chandler’s Ford.

“My biggest priority is building a fairer society by making sure every child has the best possible chance in life. It’s why I was a primary school teacher and why I am now a trustee of a local youth charity and a local pre-school.

Too many children are failed by the current system and I’d like to see the Government focused on fixing that.

“I also want more action on jobs and building a stronger economy .That’s one reason why I pushed the County Council to support superfast broadband across 100% of homes and businesses in the county. I’m pleased with the support for jobs that the Liberal Democrats have managed to win in Government. I will be working to bring jobs and apprenticeships to our local area.”

Winchester is a seat that the Liberal Democrats held between 1997 and 2010. Jackie Porter’s selection brings the total number of PPCs in place to 29, 10 of whom are women.

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6 Comments

Eddie Sammon 19th Jun '13 - 8:52am

Congratulations and best of luck, looks like a strong local candidate.
Caracatus 19th Jun '13 - 11:33am

Martin Tod will be as hard act to follow. Good luck to Jackie. Very alarming to find only 29 PPC’s in place. Less than two years to go till a general election and it is a quite pitiful state to be in.
Liberal Neil 19th Jun '13 - 12:35pm

Jackie is a great choice for Winchester 🙂
David Pollard 19th Jun '13 - 8:12pm

Go for it. There is all to play for.
Tim13 19th Jun '13 - 9:45pm

Interested to hear a comment from candidates’ Office at HQ on the numbers of PPCs in place. For the 2005 and 2010 the party made strenuous efforts not to select so-called “licensed candidates”. It will be interesting to see if that can be avoided this time. Over the last few election cycles, of course, we have regularly had alarums of “an early General Election is soon to be called”. This is noticeable by its absence this time! Despite the high bar in place against such an early call this time because of Fixed Term Parliament legislation, it could still happen. Of course, it has not happened previously either.
Miranda Whitehead 20th Jun '13 - 8:05am

Congratulations to another excellent woman PPC.