What a great week for the Conservative Party in
mid-Cornwall.
I have spent most of the week in Mevagissey, as Thursday was the
by-election for the Cornwall Council seat, left vacant in August following the
resignation of Michael Bunney, the Labour councillor.
Although I disagreed with Michael’s politics, he was a very good
local councillor and someone I have a lot of respect for as a person. When
Michael won the election in May last year it was pretty clear this was largely
a personal vote, rather than a resounding vote for the Labour Party.
With James in Gorran Haven
The challenge for the Conservative Party was to work hard to
secure that personal vote, a factor that is always important in local
elections, especially in this part of Cornwall.
In 2013 we came 3rd, after UKIP, and this is an area
that UKIP would expect to do well in.
With all of these factors in play, our selection of a strong local
candidate was critical and so we selected James Mustoe, the 2013 candidate,
again.
James is a local Mevagissey man who grew up in the village and
has strong local connections. He was an
obvious candidate to champion the concerns of the people of Mevagissey ward and
it was a pleasure to campaign alongside him.
I am therefore delighted to confirm that James won the
by-election and is the new Cornwall Councillor for the Mevagissey Division.
The result was
James Mustoe (Conservative) 348
UKIP 281
Labour 204
Lib Dem 197
Green 50
James and I are very grateful to everyone who voted Conservative
on Thursday.
Local by elections are often difficult to predict with low
turnouts so this was also an important test of our campaigning team as we build
up to May next year.
The result is a testament to James and the team supporting him,
not only did we come from 3rd to win the seat, leapfrogging UKIP, we also saw the UKIP share
of the vote drop. I am also sure the Lib Dems will be very disappointed to be
kept in 4th place behind Labour.
This result shows that we are well on track towards being in a position
to win this seat in May next year and see me elected as the MP for St Austell
and Newquay.
I also want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with
the campaign. We had a small army of people delivering leaflets, knocking on
doors, making phone calls and putting up posters. The weather was
atrocious and we all got wet but the engagement from people in the ward kept us
going. Politics is always a team game
and this week we showed we have the passion and commitment to win next year.
With just some of our excellent team on polling day in Mevagissey
The focus now firmly shifts back to my campaign. It is now less
than six months until the election. New people are coming forward to volunteer
to help each week and if you would like to join our army of local people
working with me then please do get in touch as we would value your active
support. Help us become the winning team
in May.
