A message from Robert Court, our candidate in the 2024 General Election

The Liberal Democrats in the country as a whole produced the best result for the party in over 100 years. 71 seats were won, a huge improvement on the 15 we held at the end of the last parliament. The Liberal Democrats are once again the third largest party in the House of Commons, which will mean that we all hear more from Ed Davey at Prime Minister’s Questions and we should receive far more media coverage. Also, the new Labour government with its very large majority will be held to account by the Lib Dems. The badly defeated Conservatives are not likely to be very effective as a party of opposition for quite a while.

Locally in Derbyshire Dales we were less successful, taking 9.5% of the vote, however, Sarah Dines is no longer our MP, particularly as a result of tactical voting in favour of Labour which naturally took votes from us. I would like to congratulate John Whitby on becoming the new Labour MP for Derbyshire Dales with a majority of just 350 votes. I met him several times during the campaign, and I am confident that he is a thoroughly decent man who will be an excellent constituency MP. Reform’s strong showing here and across the country took large number of votes from the Conservatives and contributed to their disastrous election. I spent many hours talking to local voters as we canvassed across the constituency on a daily basis. I found deep and widespread anger and disillusion with politics in general and with the Tories’ record in government. Some such voters stayed at home, but many voted for Reform to express their fury and disappointment.

I received support and encouragement in many ways and from many sources both before and during the campaign, for which I want to express my grateful thanks. It has been a privilege to have contested this election and an experience I would not have missed for the world.