Seaton's Lib Dem MP confident he will hold onto seat in next general election

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, insists he can hold onto the seat in the next general election by being a community champion.

Foord, who won the Devon seat in June in Britain's biggest ever by-election swing, made the comments in an interview as he met with Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, during a visit to Honiton last week.

In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he explained why he felt he had already made an impact in his first few months as an MP:

It's been a furiously busy short time, actually. On my first day in parliament, I put together an early day motion pressuring the government to offer fuel duty relief for for my constituents, for people here in my part of Devon, because what we see is people in rural areas like this one needing to travel far more miles in their cars than is the case for people who live in urban areas.

And in part of North Devon, there is a different fuel duty, a lower fuel duty levy, for people who live in very remote areas. And I would like to see that extended to all of Devon and other rural areas besides.

It could be maybe 18 months, maybe even less until the next general election. With the kind of majority that you overthrew when you managed to win this seat, how can you convince the electorate to stay with you?

I think when people vote for a Liberal Democrat MP, what they're doing is they are recognising that they're going to get a community champion. And so I'm trying my very best to be that champion of local people here in Devon in the short time that I've got before the next general election, to prove that I can represent them as best as possible in parliament."

That's quite a tough task because the previous incumbent [Neil Parish] would say that he was too. He had this good relationship with farmers, with rural communities. So, in the very short time you have, that's a lot of work to do. How confident are you that you can do that?

I've paid tribute before to my predecessor, Neil Parish. who was indeed a very good constituency MP. I've learned from the way that he managed to cut about all of the towns and villages in our patch. He was very much present in village halls and at community centres, talking to local people and dealing with individuals' casework and I'm really trying to emulate that as best I can and be that community champion.

What have been your biggest challenges, do you think, so far and what do you think are likely to be your biggest challenges in the near future?

I think one of the biggest challenges that I've seen when working with constituents over the last couple of months is this dreadful cost of living crisis that they are experiencing that we're all seeing. I mean, it wouldn't be the case that people's mortgage rates were skyrocketing – or interest rates on loans were going up, so much. Or people's pensions were put at risk, were it not for the decisions made by the Truss government over the last couple of months.

And so I think trying to help shield our constituents and directing them and signposting them to some of the things that are on offer is something that I've been trying to do. But it's difficult and it's tough because of some catastrophic decisions that the government has made in recent months."

It's not realistic to assume that the Lib Dems are going to have an overall majority at the next election. So which political parties would you feel comfortable working with?

Well, we're simply fighting hard for every single Liberal Democrat MP that we can obtain at the next general election. We started this parliament with 11, we're now on 14 and we've proved with our momentum that we are a fighting force in British politics. We're definitely on the way back up and in a stronghold that was once the west country.

We we've got deep roots and we can regenerate some of the activism, the enthusiasm that we've seen before for the Liberal Democrats in our part of the world.

Liberal Democrat leader certain of success at next general election

Liberal democrat leader Ed Davey during a visit to Honiton

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey also says he is convinced his party can win many seats in Devon at the next general election. 

During his visit last week, he announced his party's policy to guarantee a GP appointment within seven days or within 24 hours if urgent.  

The visit was part of his national 'Blue Wall' initiative, in which he hopes to convince traditional Conservative voters to back the Lib Dems in the next election. 

In an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he explained why he thought people might want to choose a Lib Dem MP:

I think many people are fed up of the chaos of the Conservatives, the economic chaos which has seen their bills go up hugely. Energy bills, food bills and now mortgage payments. People are really struggling and then they look to services like the NHS and they can't get access to an NHS dentist.

The Conservatives have really let people down. People feel they're out of touch and they're turning to the Liberal Democrats as a possible alternative.

You say it's a possible alternative but you've only said what's wrong with the Conservative Party. But you haven't really said what you're offering as that alternative.

Let me give you some examples. I mean, first of all, we're saying – and I've said for over a year – there should be a proper windfall tax on the oil and gas companies profits to pay for help for people's energy bills … a responsible way of doing that. 

Today I'm announcing that we want to give a right to patients to be able to see their GP within a week or emergency within 24 hours.

And we have a really well thought through, costed plan to be able to deliver the health care that people need."

Talking about the windfall tax, that's something Labour have spoken about as well. So, why shouldn't people vote Labour rather than Lib Dem?

Liberal Democrats thought of it over a year ago. Labour eventually got round to it and then the Conservatives did something. But unfortunately it was so badly implemented, so incompetently implemented that Shell, having announced nearly £30 billion of profit, also said that they hadn't paid a single penny in the Conservatives version. 

So, we have a morally bankrupt and incompetent Conservative government with Liberal Democrats leading the policy debate, whether it's on windfall tax, whether it's on a cap on people's energy bills, or whether it's proposals to improve our NHS.

In the coalition government you were secretary for energy and climate change and yet ten years later, not a great deal has happened. So what can you look back on now from your time in that job that you achieved that might might have made a difference now?

Well, under the Liberal Democrats, we actually trebled – no, quadrupled – Britain's renewable power with wind and solar and Liberal Democrats made Britain the world leader in offshore wind. 

What's really sad is, since 2015, the Conservatives have had a chaotic energy policy. We've seen investment in renewables stall not accelerate. We've seen investment in insulating people's homes go off, fall off the cliff.

That would have really saved people huge amounts on their heating bills. But I'm afraid the Conservatives didn't continue the very good Liberal Democrat energy policies.

At that time, people may look at you and say there have been 12 years of Conservative government. Five years of that time, the Liberal Democrats were propping them up, were supporting them, were helping them. People would be right in being a little bit sceptical of you now when you were the ones that were helping to build the foundations of this failed government.

I think over the last seven years since the 2015 election, it's been Conservatives who made many mistakes. Our current economic chaos was caused by the current Conservative government and the fact that mortgage rates are going through the roof and households are paying hundreds of pounds more every month on their mortgage. The food bills, the energy bills. That's directly because of the Conservative majority government failing. And they're failing because they're arguing among themselves.

I think people have never known a government that's so incompetent, so chaotic, so divided, and that's all down to the Conservatives. Conservatives are to blame for the chaos in the country at the moment.

A general election could be 18 months from now. You'll be hoping to win, but realistically, you're probably not going to get a majority as the Liberal Democrats. Who else would you work with?

Realistically we will only get rid of the Conservatives if Liberal Democrats beat many Conservative MPs across the country, here in the south west, across the blue wall, in places like Greater Manchester and Scotland and so on. And if Liberal Democrats beat those Conservative MPs, as I believe we can, we can see the back of this awful, chaotic, Conservative government.

If it was close, would you work with Labour?

Listen, my focus as Liberal Democrat leader has always been to beat Conservative MPs and we've shown we can do it. We did it just early this summer here in Tiverton and Honiton in East Devon. No one expected us to overturn that record Tory majority, but we did. We showed we could beat Conservative MP even in their heartlands, and I'm increasingly convinced that we can win many more seats off the Conservatives in the next election.