It has been a very long six weeks since I last wrote as your ‘Man in Westminster.’ Given that the majority in the Wells Constituency is pretty much identical to what it was before, you’d be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about but the reality is that there has been a huge churn in who has been voting for who.
During the campaign, we knocked on thousands of doors and in that process we found Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP and even Green supporters who were switching to us. We also found Conservatives, Labour, Ukip and Green supporters switching to the Lib Dems, and Conservative, Lib Dem, Green and UKIP switchers to Labour. I’d guess that between a quarter to a third of the 30,000 people who voted for me this time, didn’t vote for me in 2015. Whether that movement was driven by Brexit, the economy, national security, failings in our campaign, success in the Labour campaign or tactical voting, it shows an electorate who are restless and who crave a little stability after four straight years in which we’ve had major constitutional referenda or general elections.
The last few weeks have not been easy. The weather oscillated from sublime to ridiculous, the picture on the doorstep was confusing, some of the stuff on social media was just vicious and my party’s national campaign was uninspiring to say the least.
So a huge thank you to everyone who, despite those headwinds, volunteered on my campaign and to everyone who voted for me last Thursday. We have now been instructed to govern without a clear majority, with strong oversight in Parliament and from the political centre ground. And nobody wants another election, they just want the Government to get on with governing and MPs to get on with legislating. It’s time to get on with it.