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Tory by-election campaign gets off to a calamitous start

September 1, 2012 11:21 am

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Now that the Tories have finally picked a candidate for the Corby by-election – nearly a month after Louise Mensch’s surprise resignation as MP – you might think that their campaign for the marginal seat might be about to kick on. Unfortunately (for them), it hasn’t got off to a great start.

“Local” candidate Christine Emmett put out a press release upon her selection. If she’s so local, why did she refer to North East Hampshire (which is over 100 miles away from the constituency) TWICE in her first press release? You can see the press release below:

The local Labour Party have already taken to calling her “Hampshire Christine”…

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  • Daniel Speight

    Wasn’t Guido telling us it was going to be that cricketing fellow? Did he get frightened off or were the Tories scared of having a star defeated.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

       Or more likely, Guido was talking rubbish…

      I’ve heard that this candidate has been desperately trawling around the country looking for a seat… maybe she really WAS confused?

    • Brumanuensis

      If what John says is true, then I get the impression that the Tories have rather given up on this campaign. Which is foolish of them, as they still have a decent chance of victory.

      • John_Dore

        ”
        as they still have a decent chance of victory” a pint of whatever Brum is drinking.

        • Brumanuensis

          No, no. I think they do – or did. Corby is a very finely-balanced seat, with Corby being Labour’s stronghold and the rest of the seat being composed of affluent rural areas with a strong Conservative and UKIP vote. One of the reasons why Corby was so marginal in 2010, despite Phil Hope’s expenses problems, was because the large Scottish-origin population stuck to Gordon Brown. Ed Miliband can’t draw on that. If the Conservatives run a strong get-out-the-vote campaign – which is what Corby will come down – they can trump Labour, who have a more difficult set of voters to motivate to come out and vote. So it’s not a write-off for the Tories, although they now seem to be treating it that way.

          • Redshift1

            Very true. The Tories could have put up a good fight for this seat and they’d have a reasonable chance of sneaking a win (Labour would still be favourites). Low turnout amongst Labour voters could have very much given the Tories a window to work with.

            Of course, if they don’t put up a fight and pick a candidate who doesn’t know even roughly the geography of the seat she’s standing in then they are giving us an easy win. I’m comfortable with that :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/danlabour Dan Lodge

    where is the press release? can’t see it….

  • Chilbaldi

    very weak for the local Labour Party to be attacking her on Hampshire grounds. Loads of Corby voters wont care about this – please, please attack the candidate on policy grounds.

  • markfergusonuk

    It’s showing up for me Dan – what browser are you using?

    • Brumanuensis

      I’m having the same problem as Dan, Mark (I’m using InternetExplorer9 for the record).

  • Redshift1

    Loads of Corby voters won’t care that they’re prospective MP doesn’t know where she is? 

  • Pingback: Donkey Team Making Progress in Corby | ukgovernmentwatch

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