THE LIBERAL Democrat candidate for Reading West and Mid Berkshire says she is pleased with the calibre of the party’s choices for neighbouring seats.
On Sunday, it was revealed that Tahir Maher will be the candidate for the new constituency of Earley and Woodley, and Henry Wright will be standing in Reading Central, joining Helen Belcher who is standing in the seat that fuses parts of Tilehurst and Calcot with West Berkshire council areas.
Party members gathered in Forbury Gardens to welcome the candidates along with Helen Belcher to pose for photos and speak to Reading Today and Wokingham Today.
“Tahir has a long record for services in Earley and is a former town mayor as well. He’s got his finger on the pulse for Earley and Woodley,” she said.
“Henry is young, dynamic, energetic and very, very keen to get his campaign off the ground, and to get stuck in to talking to people.
“Both of them are solid Liberal Democrats as far as I can see.”
The reveal means that the party now has candidates in place for all the seats across Wokingham and Reading boroughs: Clive Jones is the candidate for Wokingham.
“In my seat, I think I’m the only main party candidate currently announced and that shows we are taking the seat seriously,” she said.
“In the other seats, it’s helpful to announce as early as you can, and it’s helpful to present a united front, particularly as there are three seats impacting Reading as opposed to two which has historically been the case.
“I think making sure there is a strong voice means we’ll be good support for each other.”
And Ms Belcher said the doorsteps have been looking encouraging for her party.
“We’re finding the Conservative vote is evaporating. Even those who remain are not sure whether they will vote Conservative, or whether they might stay away.
“With Labour, we’re uncovering an awful lot of people who voted tactically for Labour in the past and are now thankful they can vote how they want.
“All the canvassing sessions we’ve run so far have been very, very positive.
“We’re picking up anger about public services not being invested in, the water, health service – all big points of concern and people are interested in what we’re going to try and do about it.
“A lot of others are saying we’ve had enough of this lot, we’ll vote to get them out.”
