Getting up close and matey certainly worked for Boris’s new babe Angela Richardson.
Having schlepped around the country from Canterbury to Totnes – Ewhurst resident, Angela Richardson whose most important achievement to date has been to campaign to keep Cranleigh public lavatories open all hours is now flushed with her latest success.
Last night Thursday the New Zealander was endorsed by the Guildford & villages branch of the Conservative Party as the chosen-one to oppose her erstwhile colleague and former MP Anne Milton. Ms Milton announced this week she will stand as Independent.
You may read why here:
The Tory activist who worked tirelessly clambering up the greasy pole, but slipped down a couple of rungs when she was rejected by Cranleigh villagers in the May Waverley borough council election, could soon achieve her long-held ambition to fill the Guildford & Villages seat at Westminster.
Boris’s new Best Buddy was voted in at the Harbour Hotel in Guildford?
Waverley Web Wonders who will fill her parish council stilettoes now? Or, was it as everyone believed, that Cranleigh Parish Council merely a stepping-stone onto bigger things. With the Conservative vote now splitting in all directions – could Guildford find itself in Lib-Dem territory again. Because Zoe Franklin has been out and about long-since campaigning to turn Guildford a brighter shade of yellow. Could she now follow in the footsteps of the highly respected former Guildford MP Lib Dem Sue Doughty?
Didn’t Boris say recently that the price of party loyalty may be to loose Guildford?
And is this the woman who could snatch victory from the two warring Tory women?
Zoe, a former borough councillor and Guildford resident for nearly 20 years, won an impressive 24% of the vote for the Liberal Democrats in the 2017 snap General Election.
Ciaran Doran, chair of Guildford Liberal Democrats, said: “I am delighted that Zoe will continue as our parliamentary candidate. As well as being well-liked and respected by our members and residents, she is very hardworking and deeply committed to Guildford, Cranleigh and the Villages. She has real vision for the future of Guildford and villages and she is determined that our community deserves better than the present Conservative leadership we have at every local level.”
Zoe said: “I am committed to fighting for real and positive change in five key areas locally and nationally,” and summarised her campaign:
- I want the people of the UK to have the final say on Brexit through a People’s Vote;
- I am determined to help us build a future where everyone can fulfil their potential, regardless of background;
- I want a future where our NHS and social care services get the funding they need to properly meet the needs of local people;
- I want a future where we build the right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure while vigorously tackling the social housing crisis; and
- Finally, I want a future for us that is environmentally friendly, with greener energy and transport methods, while waging war on plastic waste and pushing for urgent action to reduce local air pollution.”
Zoe is supported by her colleague Paul Follows, Deputy Leader of Waverley Borough Council, Leader of Godalming Town Council, and the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for the SW Surrey seat – which includes parts of Waverley – formerly held by Jeremy Hunt.
Zoe said: “We have been let down again and again by our Conservative MP and Conservative-run councils and we deserve better. I believe we Liberal Democrats, working with and for the people of Guildford, Cranleigh and the Villages, can build a better, brighter and fairer future for everyone in our communities.”
Surprised Anne Milton has not defected to the Lib Dems and replaced Zoe.
She will split the Tory vote and scupper Tory chances of retaining the seat. Hope she is comfortable with that legacy
My bet is Lib Dems will retake Guildford.
Our bet too.
Zoe has been working hard in Guildford for a long time, and I don’t think the local party would have accepted Anne moving over (even if that had been on the table – which I don’t think it ever was).
I do think that with Green standing down, Anne, another official Tory and a Brexit party candidate in the mix – Zoe does have a real chance (even more than I think she already did). She’ll make a fantastic MP if that happens too.
At the last Borough elections Guildford returned several candidates who stood independent of party. Cranleigh Parish Council, supporting a population the size of a small town, chose to be a Council represented by independent candidates only.
Although her Remain sentiments and voting choice has upset the PM, Anne Milton has done a good job for residents over the past 14 years and I can see no reason why she can’t continue to do a good job as our MP going forward as an Independent.
Anne has a great deal of experience which it would be a terrible shame to lose. Although the past few months must have been tough for her, she will no doubt have built valuable cross-party relationships in that time that the other candidates for Guildford and Cranleigh don’t have.
After reading what Mr Farage has announced today, re not putting Brexit Party candidates up against Conservatives so they are better placed to take Labour seats in the North, it seems unlikely that a Liberal Democrat win in Guildford & Cranleigh will have any impact on the overall general election result.
And if the Conservatives are returned with a majority nationally, maybe the pragmatic option would be for us locally to have an MP who already has connections inside and outside of Parliament and knows how to get things done about non- Brexit related issues which concern residents on a day-to-day basis.
It’s good that we have a choice, but we only have a few weeks to decide who we feel would represent us best as an effective constituency MP for Cranleigh and the Villages should we get a Conservative dominated Parliament.
Although Brexit is the BIG issdue in the forthcoming election – what matters to mot of us is? Whio is best placed to deal with the things that matter to us locally?
Who is going to stand up and fight for the people of Guildford and all the surrounding villages who are being suffocated by car fumes and traffic? Who will investigate the flooding and water issues that have dogged Alfold, Godalming and Cranleigh?
Who has the experience to do this, honestly and with integrity? We want to hear when the hustings will take place – and where?
And who is going to stand up and fight for the climate and for protection of the countryside against the drilling cowboys?
The Surrey County Council vote on the first exploratory well at Dunsfold could come on 18 December – so less than a week after the General Election.
If the recent decision to give planning consent for full production at Horse Hill is anything to go by SCC will just roll over and give consent for this first exploratory phase at Dunsfold – in spite of the many objections. That exploratory phase could last 3 years and if the applicant finds enough to make it commercially viable it will want to go to full production in about 3 years time. So we really need an MP who is fully committed to opposing oil and gas drilling sites near Dunsfold and across the wider Weald area and willing to take this up at national level and fight for changes to national and Surrey planning policy.
Well don’t rely too much on the PPP for Guildford & Villages. She is most unlikely to know where Dunsfold is – let alone anything about the proposed plans for the exploratory drilling at Loxhill.
On the 18th of December she will be supping with Boris and her NBF’s at a party somewhere in Westminister.
Yes, we agree, we do need an MP who is fully committed to opposing oil and gas drilling here and further afield. Perhaps all the candidates will tell us?