Candidate quits in Cameron’s ex-seat Witney as nomination deadline nears

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Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for David Cameron’s old seat has announced she will no longer be standing at the general election.

Georgia Meadows, 22, posted her decision to stand down as the candidate for Witney on social media as the deadline for nominations looms.

She wrote: “I was incredibly privileged, earlier this year, to be selected to stand as Labour’s candidate for Witney in the general election. It is a wonderful constituency that is desperately in need of a strong MP who can deliver change for the town and surrounding area.
“However, the snap nature of this election have caused me to reflect on whether now is the right time to put myself forward as a parliamentary candidate.
“After a great deal of thought, I have therefore decided not to stand in this election. I will be putting all my efforts into supporting the new Labour candidate when they are selected, to ensure Witney, and the country, can get the change we so desperately need.”
LabourList understands it came too late to remove Meadows’ name from the list of candidates signed off by the party’s national executive committee on Tuesday.
The nominations deadline for candidates standing for election on July 4 is this Friday.
Witney’s MP at dissolution was Conservative Robert Courts, who has held the seat since it was vacated by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2016.
It is widely seen as a Conservative safe seat, and is one of the 140 seats the Tories are forecast to hold in YouGov’s latest MRP poll.

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