LABOUR has vowed to win a new parliamentary seat, saying the Lib Dems won’t be in with a chance of victory – but it still has to select a candidate.
The Reading West and Mid Berkshire constituency was created as part of a boundary review, and will be contested for the first time at the next general election which is due next year. It includes Kentwood, Tilehurst and Norcot, Calcot and Theale, and surrounding West Berkshire villages.
Nationally, Labour has declared the seat a ‘non-battleground’ constituency. The local party intends to take the seat, which is notionally a Conservative one based on the existing Reading West seat. This is held by Sir Alok Sharma, who will step down when the poll is conducted.
A Labour source told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We will be fighting for every vote in Reading West and Mid Berkshire and offering the fresh start our area desperately needs.
“Polls are clear that the Liberal Democrats can’t win here and the choice for voters at the next election is a fresh start with Labour or more Conservative decline.”
The political polling site Electoral Calculus has been cited as evidence of a swing towards Labour, with it predicting the party will with 55% of the vote – but this uses national polling models rather than more localised data.
The Liberal Democrats are angling themselves as the main opposition to the Conservatives.
Reacting to the news, Helen Belcher, the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading West and Mid Berkshire said: “It’s a relief to see that the Labour Party are admitting, at last, that the contest for Reading West and Mid Berkshire is between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.
“The Liberal Democrat campaign is already underway – we are serious in wanting to win this seat.”
Dr John Grout, chair of the Reading Liberal Democrats, added, “We are already seeing the benefit of being the first party to select a candidate for Reading West and Mid Berkshire. We are finding so many voters wanting a change of government, and willing to vote for us.
“Helen will be a marvellous MP, and has already shown she’s working hard to win the seat.”
Ms Belcher added: “It’s clear that Liberal Democrats have a real chance of winning here.
“May’s local elections clearly showed us in contention across the seat, with more Lib Dem councillors elected than either Conservative or Labour. That’s real votes, not models or projections.
“Conversations across the constituency confirm that local voters are taking us as serious contenders. And all the time the Conservative government is making itself more and more unpopular, throwing huge amounts of money at its pet schemes while ignoring the pressures on household budgets, the NHS, and council funding.”
Most of the new constituency is made up of the Reading West and Newbury constituencies, which have both returned Conservative MPs since 2010.
Ben Blackmore, the chair of the Conservatives in the new seat said: “We are really confident here.
“Sir Alok Sharma is stepping down, so we will have a candidate selection process. We are 100% in the game and are completely focused on winning.”
Mr Blackmore said the party has a long list of 100-200 candidates hoping to become the Conservative candidate.
“It’s a very competitive seat, it’s a seat a lot of people want to go for,” he continued. “There is a lot of local talent, and a lot of talented individuals who have roots back here and are really interested in applying to run.
“This is a seat that we can and we will win.”
