Rory Stewart is out of the race for Mayor of London
Conservative turned independent Rory Stewart has pulled out of the race for Mayor of London:
He said he was giving up hopes of securing his “dream job” because of the difficulties independent candidates faced against the Labour and Conservative “machines”, with hundreds of canvassers and bigger budgets for election leaflets and advertising.
“The point about an independent campaign is it needs to be a sort of quite quick insurgency where you really build excitement over a few months,” he said. “But you can’t beat these huge machines if you’re pushed into a nearly two-year campaign.” [Evening Standard]
You can find out more about the Lib Dem candidate, Siobhan Benita, and sign up to help her campaign, here.
The election was due to be held in May this year but has been put back until May 2021 due to coronavirus.
I hope efforts to get Stuart (a very intelligent and rounded politician) actively to support Siobhan Benita are in full swing, even if he can’t be persuaded to be a Lib Dem at the moment
He is one of a small bunch of very genuine conscientious MPs, a diminishing band within the Tories, so all respect to him… but he is not a potential Liberal Democrat.
Peter…what qualities does he lack? I thought I was a Liberal Democrat, but I’m bemused why so few of the electorate share my views. Enlighten me please. I agree with you regarding an all round respect for someone with decency, intellect and integrity….these qualities alone would certainly make him welcome in my gang.
We should encourage him to join the Liberal Democrats. He came from a similar mould to Paddy Ashdown.