Brexit not a sticking point in North Shropshire victory, say Lib Dems
The Liberal Democrats claim voters have “moved on” from Brexit and that promises on local issues are what helped secure its victory on Friday morning.
Despite North Shropshire having voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, it did not prove a sticking point for its constituents when it came to Thursday’s by-election.
The Lib Dems insisted Brexit “does not come up on the doorstep anymore” and that “politics has moved on and people are talking about the issues which matter to them right now - such as health services, cost of living crisis or just general dissatisfaction at how the Government is running the country”.
Lib Dem sources told The Telegraph that voters were far more concerned with provincial issues such as ambulance waiting times and the impact of the changes to the subsidy payments of farmers that are set to take place under the Conservatives.
Farming vote ‘likely played a role’
“The farming vote came out for us in a big way in North Shropshire,” one Lib Dem official said.
“Lots of local farmers are angry at being taken for granted by the Government and sold out in trade deals with Australia and New Zealand.
“While we don’t know exactly how farmers voted in North Shropshire, given how rural the constituency is and how important farming is to local economy, it likely played a role.”
An annual poll on December 16 by Farmers Weekly found that farmer support for the Tories had slipped dramatically in recent months, with just 57 per cent stating they would vote Conservative when asked “who would you vote for if there was an election tomorrow?,” compared to 72 per cent last year.
In comparison, this jumped from 9 per cent for the Lib Dems in 2020 to 17 per cent.
Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader and now its food and rural affairs spokesman, said: “This Conservative Government has shown that it simply doesn’t understand farmers.
“They’re happy to undermine farmers’ hard work by signing deals that fail to uphold our world-leading environmental protection and animal welfare standards.
“Meanwhile, they say they understand the important role farmers have to play in our future, but they’re cutting support payments when the replacement will not be ready for years.
“The Conservatives have taken farmers’ votes for granted for far too long and through their actions they risk losing it forever.”
Another local issue the Lib Dems focused on during the by-election was ambulance waiting times and the health service. The ambulance waiting times in Shropshire are one of the worst in the country and the party pledged to fix it.
The party accused Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, of having recently snubbed a meeting with the West Midlands Ambulance Trust despite warnings of “catastrophic risk” facing patients.
Rising popularity more than ‘Amersham Blueprint’
However, the Lib Dems say their rising popularity is more than an “Amersham Blueprint,” which saw the party take the seat from the Tories earlier this year, defeating a 16,000 Conservative majority.
Moreover, they say their strategy is a consistent approach to targeting “Blue Wall” seats and working quietly behind the scenes all year. Such was the case with South Cambridgeshire, which saw the Lib Dems take the District and County Council from the Tories in the past three years.
Sir Ed Davey told The Telegraph that voters see the Lib Dem candidate as not only someone “who lives and breathes their community” but someone who can make “a positive difference locally”.
“In contrast, you have a Conservative party which is out of touch and fails to deliver,” he said.
“Community politics is the opposite to what Boris Johnson stands for. It is about listening and helping, instead of just looking out for yourself. You can call that the “Amersham Blueprint”, but to me, that is just decent politics which people expect from their MPs.”
Sir Ed added that he was proud of his party as one that is “championing farmers in Shropshire, environment campaigners in Buckinghamshire, and all those who demand a fair deal”.
