Commenting on the Richmond Park by-election result , Heather Kidd said: This is a great day for the Liberal Democrats. We have won back the seat formally held by Jenny Tong and Susan Kramer. “After our brilliant poll in Witney where the Conservative majority was cut from 25,000 to 5,000 this really shows we are back on the map and making a difference to voters hopes and fears.
These are not just isolated results . We are the only Party winning Council seats across the Country. Since May we have gained 66 council seats. Both the Conservatives, UKIP and Labour have made net losses.
Time for a change!”
Winning Lib Dem Candidate Sarah Olney said “A year and a half ago, I wasn’t involved in politics. I wasn’t a member of a political party. I’d never been involved in a political campaign. I’d never thought about being a politician. But I knew I was a Liberal – I believed in openness, tolerance, compassion, working with our neighbours at home and around the world – and when I saw what happened at the General Election and I felt I had to get involved.
“I think a lot of people in this community had the same feeling this summer. Richmond Park is full of people like me who felt that something was going wrong. That the politics of anger and division were on the rise. That the liberal, tolerant values we took for granted were under threat. We were seeing the UKIP vision for Britain in the ascendancy – intolerant, backward-looking, divisive; just as we see it in America and across Europe.
“Well today we have said no. We will defend the Britain we love. We will stand up for the open, tolerant, united Britain that we believe in. The people of Richmond Park and North Kingston have sent a shockwave through this Conservative Brexit Government. And our message is clear: we do not want a ‘hard Brexit’; we do not want to be pulled out of the Single Market; and we will not let intolerance, division and fear win.”