18th December 2023

Extract from an article in the Argus by Daniel Green – the full piece can be seen on The Argus website.

Voters across Sussex will go to the polls next year to determine who controls Parliament and the country for the next five years.

For the first time since 1997, the county is expected to see a number of closely fought battles which could determine which party holds the keys to Number 10.

‘Tories know cost of everything and value of nothing’

Such is the scale of Labour’s current national polling lead that election forecaster Electoral Calculus currently predicts the party will win in Mid Sussex.

The party’s only councillor on the district council, Paul Kenny, said residents have become disaffected with the government and the Conservative Party more broadly.

He said: “Is the Conservative Party even capable of even putting forward a solution to any of the problems people are facing? The short answer is no – they have no idea.

“They have no active positive ideas. They’re incapable.

“The Conservative Party knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

“Listen to the Today programme when a minister comes on and is challenged about the state of some services. Every single time, they will give the statistic of how much money they’ve put into it, but they never talk about the outcomes.

“In the early days of New Labour, Tony Blair would say never mind about public ownership, it’s about outcomes. We want the best vehicle for getting the best outcome for public services and it was that focus that led to the drop in waiting lists under the Labour government and it’s that sort of focus which will lead to improvements under Keir Starmer.”

Cllr Kenny said people on the doorstep, including lifelong Tories, have said that they cannot vote for the Conservatives.

While some of those voters are not quite ready to commit to voting for Labour next time around, he believes they are open to the prospect.

He said: “I wouldn’t say that en masse people are making the move to Labour, but what they are very clear about is that they have completely lost faith in this government and the Conservative Party.”

Labour has yet to select its candidate for the next election.

Greg Mountain, who came second for Labour in 2015 and 2017 in Mid Sussex, said a Labour MP for the area would be historic.

“A Labour MP would work with people for their benefit and make Mid Sussex an even better place to live,” he said.