Liberal Democrats announce Wiltshire councillor Helen Belcher as MP candidate for the next general election in Reading West and Mid Berkshire
The Liberal Democrats have announced their candidate for the next general election in Reading West and Mid Berkshire.
Wiltshire councillor Helen Belcher will be standing and is optimistic of her chances of winning the seat from the Conservatives.
The constituency is held by Alok Sharma, but he recently announced he will not be standing at the next election.
But the Lib Dem candidate, who is also a director of Transactual and trustee of Trans Media Watch and recognised in the New Year Honours list with an OBE, said she has a very real chance.
She told Newbury Today: “I am feeling quite positive, I think we have got a really good chance in Reading West and Mid Berkshire.
“I think the Conservative party conference in the past few days has shown us exactly why this area needs a lot of Liberal Democrat MPs.
“I will be working very hard on the issues that people actually are worried about so NHS waiting lists, crumbling schools, sewage in rivers, cost-of-living-crisis and energy bills.
“All of those public services which aren’t working, we need to get into business and start investing properly, making good decisions.”
She said that the recent local elections in West Berkshire, where the Liberal Democrats took the district council majority from the Conservatives, offered the party further confidence.
She added: “We have the same number of councilors across the seat as the Conservatives; our vote share is very, very close.
“We have got an excellent chance.”
Leader of West Berkshire Council Lee Dillon was in attendance and echoed his Lib Dem colleague’s confidence.
He told Newbury Today: “I don’t think there are any safe Conservative seats in the country now.
“And here in the Mid Berks and Reading West seat we have a large number of councillors from the elections in May.
“And I am confident that with their local teams they will be able to get people out on the doors and so that we can get Helen across the line.”
Former leader of Wokingham Borough Council Clive Jones was announced as the Wokingham candidate.
