GENERAL ELECTION: Candidates bid for votes as campaign enters final hours

Wednesday, 3 July 2024 12:52

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Local candidates have been bidding to win your votes as the general election campaign enters its final day.

Politicians aiming to become MPs in the Morecambe & Lunesdale, and Lancaster & Wyre seats have been out and about across the constituencies over the past week.

Lizzi Collinge (Labour Party), Gina Dowding (Green Party), Peter Jackson (LIberal Democrats), David Morris (Conservative Party) and Barry Parsons (Reform UK) will vie for votes in the newly-reshaped Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency in the election on July 4.

Following last year's boundary changes, the new constituency includes Arnside and Milnthorpe, Burton and Crooklands, Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale, as well as Bare, Bolton and Slyne, Carnforth and Millhead, Halton-with-Aughton, Harbour, Heysham North, Central and South, Kellet, Lower Lune Valley, Overton, Poulton, Silverdale, Torrisholme, Upper Lune Valley, Warton and Westgate.

The Morecambe and Lunesdale Parliamentary seat is currently held by the Conservatives, with David Morris as MP since 2010.

This week Mr Morris has released a series of campaign videos calling himself 'The Man Who Gets Things Done'. They have featured clips of his visits to Stainton, Kirkby Lonsdale, Garsdale, Sedbergh, Dent, and at Heysham power stations and the Eden Project Morecambe site.

Mr Morris also released a video expressing anger at Morecambe Town Council's 'Frontierland Tax' which saw the council raise £1m from Morecambe taxpayers for a project on the former Frontierland site which has now been scrapped.

He also attended Carnforth Armed Forces Day last weekend (see below).

Labour candidate Lizzi Collinge, Mr Morris' closest rival in what many are predicting to be a tight race for the seat, posted a video of herself and Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the Promenade saying they will deliver the planned Eden Project Morecambe if they win the election.

This week Mrs Collinge has also released photos showing her campaigning in places across the constituency including Sedbergh, Hornby, Holme, Halton and Kirkby Lonsdale.

She also went to Princes Crescent Dental Practice in Bare with Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and Hare Appletree Farm at Quernmore to meet farmer Andrew Metcalfe with Steve Reed, Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (below). She also visited Beaumont College Summer Fair and Carnforth Armed Forces Day.

Gina Dowding, Green Party candidate for Morecambe and Lunesdale, was pictured with Natalie Bennett, Green Party member of the House of Lords, while on the campaign trail in Morecambe last month.

Barry Parsons, the Reform UK candidate for Morecambe and Lunesdale, was pictured on his Facebook page this week, out campaigning in Heysham.

In Lancaster & Wyre, the candidates are Nigel Alderson (Reform UK), Peter Cartridge (Conservative Party), Jack Lenox (Green Party), Matt Severn (Liberal Democrats) and Cat Smith (Labour Party).

Following last year's boundary changes, the new constituency will include Garstang, Preesall, Great Eccleston, Hambleton and Stalmine, Calder, Wyresdale and Brock with Catterall, as well as the Lancaster areas of Bulk, Castle, Ellel, John O'Gaunt, Marsh, Skerton West and East, Scotforth West and East, Scale Hall and the University and Scotforth Rural.

The now-scrapped Lancaster & Fleetwood Parliamentary seat was held by Cat Smith since 2015.

Wyre and Preston North, which also no longer exists following the shake-up, was held by Conservative Ben Wallace since 2010.

Cat Smith posted this photo of herself with her dad Alan while on the campaign trail this week.

Peter Cartridge, Conservative candidate, posted this photo of himself out campaigning with former Defence Secretary and Wyre and Preston North MP Ben Wallace, who is not standing at the election.

Jack Lenox, the Green Party candidate in Lancaster & Wyre, has also posted photos of his campaign this week including in Lancaster and Garstang.

Nigel Alderson, who is standing for Reform UK in Lancaster & Wyre, posted a photo on his official Facebook page of meeting former Conservative minister and now Reform UK party member Ann Widdecombe at a conference at the Savoy Hotel in Blackpool.

Mr Alderson also posted that he'd had a "brilliant response in Lancaster to our leafleting and in Garstang and Forton for canvassing", and had also been out campaigning this week in Knott End, Cabus and Scorton.

Matt Severn, candidate for the Liberal Democrats, posted photos to his X account @matt_severn of himself attending a hustings event last Friday at Claughton-on-Brock (below), and also out campaigning in Westmorland and Lonsdale where his colleague Tim Farron is standing to be re-elected as MP.