Having drawn breath over the Festive Season I want to say a deep and personal thank you to everyone who voted for me and helped in my General Election campaign. I am only sorry that all our hard work did not deliver victory. Sadly, once the Brexit Party withdrew in favour of their "Brexit friend" James Gray, it was an uphill battle here. That said, and in the circumstances of the national outcome, I am very proud of our result:
We cut James Gray's majority by 24.4%
Our 9.2 % vote increase was the third largest for any Lib Dem in the West Country.
At 26.9% our vote share was one of the best in the West
We are now the undisputed and clear challengers to the Conservatives in North Wiltshire, beating Labour and the Greens in every community.
We achieved this thanks an amazing "army" of volunteers. Some 500 local people spoke to voters, delivered leaflets, made donations, endorsed my social media posts and put up posters urging a vote for me! Now we need to build on this. There is an urgent and even greater need for a united, strong, internationalist, caring and compassionate, environmentally committed, liberal force in our communities, county and country. I hope you agree and will work with me to build that into an unstoppable force to deliver victory in next year's local elections and again when we fight a general election in North Wiltshire.