Chairman's Constituency Report 2019/2020

CHATHAM AND AYLESFORD CONSERVATIVE ASSOCIATION    
Chairman’s Constituency Report 2019/2020

As a 8 year old in Wallasey, my first chore as a volunteer was to cycle around the polling stations collecting the completed tellers’ lists and to take them back to the “Committee Room”. 

45 years later I am still at it, although not by bike! 

Over that time, I have seen our Party in good times and bad; the rise of Maggie, the Falklands War and miners’ strike, Heseltine’s resignation over Westland, the introduction of the Community Charge and Maggie’s downfall at the hands of disloyal men who owed her their careers and who were largely as feeble as they were useless.

Talking of feeble and useless, Maggie was followed by the dark and leaderless days of John Major; he of elderly maids cycling to communion through the morning mist and the excitement of the Cones Hotline and Black Wednesday, followed by our worst ever defeat in 1997 at the hands of Tony Blair. 

Through 13 years of Labour government we were led by William Hague, IDS and Michael Howard to the rise of David Cameron, when we hugged hoodies and Voted Blue to Go Green (whatever that meant).

Then we won – or almost won. We had five years of the “Dave and Nick” coalition, which was meant to re-shape British politics, when actually it just re-shaped the LibDems (reducing them from 57 seats to 8!) 

The 2015 victory that no-one saw coming, with the promise of “a once in a lifetime referendum; the government will deliver what you decide.” Victory for Vote Leave, the end of Cameron, the rise of Theresa May followed by her inevitable and agonising fall. The leadership election that gave us reason to hope, followed by the victory of Boris and finally – that glorious moment at 10pm on Thursday 12 December when Huw Edwards on the BBC election news announced “our exit poll has just been released and we are looking at a Conservative majority of 80 plus seats”.

Change in politics seldom comes smoothly and we tend to forget just how significant some of those historical changes have been. But when you are living through turbulent times rather than recalling them from the pages of history books, they seem bigger, more colourful and vivid than ever. And the last 12 months will provide historians with enough colour for years to come. How lucky we are to have had a ringside seat at such a fascinating period of our party’s and our nation’s history.

2019 started with growing despair over the Party leadership and unease about Brexit and the Government’s ability to deliver anything of tangible benefit in the hung and paralysed parliament.

Locally we were facing ‘all out’ elections in both Tonbridge & Malling and Medway Councils. On the doorsteps there was anger and impatience; but fortunately, in most of our seats, our supporters had nowhere else to go. The demise of UKIP and their takeover by unpalatable racists made them unelectable. 

Across Chatham & Aylesford the fight was between us and Labour, and while we were not loved, Labour were feared and untrusted. On Thursday 2 May most of our supporters ‘held their noses’ and voted Conservative and we retained control of both local councils. It is a tribute to Alan Jarrett (Leader of Medway) and Nicolas Heslop (Leader of TMBC) that we bucked the national trend to deliver four more years of strong local Conservative leadership with a decent majority in both areas.

Congratulations to our candidates who won: 
David Lettington and Alan Keeley (Snodland West), 
Ruth Lettington and Sue Bell (Snodland East), 
David Cooper and Rob Cannon (Ditton), 
Steve Hammond and Colin Williams (Aylesford South), 
Dave Davis and Roger Dalton (Burham & Wouldham), 
Des Keers and Michael Base and me!, (Aylesford North & Walderslade), 
David Brake and Adrian Gulvin (Medway Walderslade), 
Alan Jarrett and David Wildey (Lordswood and Capstone) and 
Tashi Bhutia and Gloria Opara (Princes Park). 

Commiserations to our candidates who fought hard and lost. Defending traditional Labour or Lib Dem seats that we won at our high-water mark, was never going to be easy and the loss was no reflection on them whatsoever. 

In particular I would like to thank and pay tribute to Mike Parry-Waller, our only incumbent councillor not to be re-elected. Mike was the first ever Conservative in Larkfield North and he worked tirelessly for that ward over eight years. He deserved a better result than was achieved, having done so much for local people and his community.

The EU election on Thursday 23 May was the election that should never have happened, fought against a backdrop of Theresa May’s crumbling government and broken promises over Brexit. Conservatives were humiliated at the hands of our own supporters; 80% of whom either stayed at home or voted for Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.  

We finished 5^th with just 8.8% of the vote, behind the Brexit Party, Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens. 15 of our 19 MEPs lost their seats. This was our worst performance ever in a nationwide election and we should be thankful that the Brexit Party was not registered nor sufficiently well organised to have fielded candidates against us at the local elections.

The following day, 24 May 2019, Theresa May announced her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party. The ensuing leadership contest resulted in the Parliamentary Party reducing the original ten contenders to two, who were placed before Party members in the country in a secret ballot. A poll of our members locally showed 85% support for Boris, who subsequently went on to win the national vote by 66.4% to Jeremy Hunt’s 33.6%.

We saw an immediate bounce in the polls and speculation rose about a winter election, which was finally called on 6 November 2019 with polling day on 12 December 2019. After a vindictive, accusatory and at times aggressive national campaign, which saw Labour close our poll lead throughout the 5 week campaign, we finally triumphed by a far greater margin than anyone had expected; a parliamentary majority of 80 seats and the best result for 30 years. Labour’s result was their worst in 80 years.

Here in Chatham & Aylesford, Tracey Crouch polled 28,856 (66.6%) and won by a majority of 18,540. This was our best ever result and represented a 9.7% swing from Labour.  

Let’s take a moment to reflect on what has been achieved. 

Ten years ago, C&A was Labour’s safest seat in Kent. It is now one of the safest Conservative seats in the entire country, with a higher Conservative vote share than T&M, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and even Chelsea!  In fact, only 19 constituencies in the UK (from 650) have a higher Conservative vote-share than we do. Well done to Tracey and all who helped achieve this.

We end the year in a very good place. Our membership is the highest ever. Despite fighting local, General and European elections, we still have a healthy surplus. In fact, we finish the year with £17,600 in the bank – just £2,000 less than when we started. This is due to our hard-working branches and the generosity of our members.

I am now entering my third and final year as your Chairman. In one way or another I have been actively involved in the running of this Association since 2002. Throughout that time, I have been Chairman (twice), Deputy Chairman Political (three times) and your Agent at every local and national election for almost 20 years! 

I think I have done my share!  

With your support, my priority for the year ahead is to help rebuild our branches, set up a policy discussion group, relaunch the YCs and identify and train the next group of local leaders, including my successor. 

Locally, we have achieved more than I ever thought possible and it is now time to think about handing over to a new generation who can build on what’s already been achieved.

I look forward to my final year as your Chairman with as much enthusiasm as I did my first. I would like to thank everyone who has worked with me on this incredible journey. 

Andrew Kennedy
Chairman
January 2020