Political

Liberal Democrat prospects in Lewisham East

Sky News reported earlier:

Labour MP Heidi Alexander will quit Parliament in order to become one of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s deputies.

Lib Dem prospects in Lewisham East

In 2017 the Liberal Democrats polled 4.4% in her Lewisham East seat. However back in 2010 the party was up on 28.2%: this seat is more promising territory than that 4.4% may make it look at first glance. Especially as the best calculations put the Remain vote at the European Referendum on 65-66% in this constituency.

In the local elections last week, the Liberal Democrats were on 13%:

A big challenge for the Lib Dems, as those local election figures show, will be to make a strong and quick enough start to clearly establish the Liberal Democrats as the party for people who want a strong line on Remain (unlike, ahem, Jeremy Corbyn) and for tactical votes from Conservatives who want to see Labour defeated.

The party is certainly taking the forthcoming campaign seriously, with appeals for money and volunteer mobilisation efforts already underway.

You can sign up to volunteer or make a donation here.

Lib Dem candidate for Lewisham East

Local party members have selected Lucy Salek.

Fun fact regarding Lewisham East

12 responses to “Liberal Democrat prospects in Lewisham East”

  1. As Liberal Democrats we have to make ourselves more know to the general public & media,

    Our message is the only sensible one at present

  2. By my calculations – the local election result last Thursday across Lewisham East was:
    Labour 58.6%, Conservative 19.2%, Lib Dem 13.4%, Green 6.8% and various others 2%.
    (Greens did not stand a full slate in every ward)
    Wikipedia has an almost 2:1 majority for Remain in the seat 64.6% to 35.4%

    Clearly a seat where the Lib Dems can hold Labour and Tories’ feet to fire over Brexit

    • Not sure what your comment means: it goes without saying that the Labour Party never forgives us for anything. However, it did put me in mind of the quip I think I first heard from the lips of David Frost on TW3 about the late Eric Heffer “He’s not as nice as he looks!” Do you think that could be applicable here?

  3. Its a seat and time where I’d be happy with a mutually agreed joint Lib Dem Green candidate

    • When most of our politicians appear to be more concerned with personal and party interests, can the Greens and the Lib Dems rise to the occasion and jointly take a lead in getting us out of this Brexit disaster?

  4. By-elections can be strange beasts, and real shocks can happen. If Labour’s candidate just follows the Corbyn Leave line, with also leaving the customs union, a strong Liberal Democrat candidate could hoover up some of those votes.

    I do wonder if the much stronger performance from you last week is partly down to the actual leaving date drawing nearer, and will be more and more to the front of minds?

  5. Heidi Alexander had a lot of following in the constituency – she was a highly regarded MP and had strong Remain credentials. This may have gone some way to explaining the low 4.4 per cent Lib Dem vote. She will be a hard act for any Labour candidate to follow – especially if Momentum supporters follow through their plans to take charge of the nomination.

  6. This is the area in which I grew up (Grove Park and Lee Green wards) and first canvassed for the Liberals at the age of 14 in Downham Ward for a Lewisham Council by-election in 1969. I think we were beaten by the Communist! Sadly just before the 1970 General Election our Liberal PPC died. That meant no candidate so I ran numbers from the local Polling Station back to the Committee Room for the incumbent Labour MP, Rowland Moyle. In a key marginal he was opposed by a “Powellite” Tory. Moyle won very narrowly but the Tories won nationally.

  7. I was interested to note two other former Candidates:-
    Jim Forrest, a stalwart community politician just re-elected after regaining a seat, on Fareham BC, from UKIP in a November 2017 by-election, was the Liberal candidate in 1979.
    Also David Buxton, twice our candidate in 1997 & 2001, posted on Lib Dem Voice about the 11th. April launch of the More United cross-party group campaign to restore the fund that supports deaf and disabled people into political office. https://www.libdemvoice.org/a-new-campaign-to-restore-the-political-disability-fund-57177.html.
    David was the first deaf British Sign Language-user elected to public office, when he was elected as a London Borough councillor in 1990. He later served four years as an Epsom & Ewell Borough Councillor from May 2007.

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