TACTICAL VOTING
One of the big debating issues at the next general election will be tactical voting, the country is undoubtably polarised and there is a groundswell of people who wish to see the end of Tory rule.
In December 2023, Labour declared that Derbyshire Dales is a non-battleground seat making the Lib Dems the main challenger. (Read the Labour announcement).
We have selected our candidate, Robert Court, and our campaign is underway, Labour have yet to select a candidate.
We are therefore appealing for anyone who wishes to unseat the Tories to join our campaign in 2024. You don't need to join the Party to help our campaign - you can register to help here.
Uniform swing models, where you apply the national voting shares are far too crude and distort the real situation - often to the advantage of the Tories - don't fall for it!
2023 Local Election results - Lib Dems win highest vote share
The choice to vote tactically for the Lib Dems in Derbyshire Dales is supported by:
1. At the Local elections in May 2023, the Liberals Democrats secured the highest vote share with 34%. You can read the full results here.
2. Derbyshire Dales boundaries are slightly changed compared to 2019 and now include Hilton, Hatton and Crich. In Hilton the Lib Dems took 2 of the 3 seats off the Tories at the 2023 local elections and we have a Councillor in Crich.
BACKGROUND
Since 2010 when the seat was created the Tories have won over 50% of the vote in every general election but as recent by-elections have shown no seat is safe now.
In 2019 Lib Dems increased their vote share by 6.9% whilst Labour fell by 7.2% and with 34% of the vote at the 2023 local elections we had the highest vote share of all the parties and are ideally placed to be the main challenger to the Tories in a predominently rural seat.
DEMOGRAPHICS of DERBYSHIRE DALES
Derbyshire Dales is a primarily a rural constituency and in similar seats such as Shropshire North the Liberal Democrats have come from 3rd place to defeat the Tories, it will be very difficult for Labour to appeal to this demographic.