Lib Dem leader returns to his roots to support election candidate

NICK Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democratic party, spoke fondly of his family connections with the area, when he visited Thame this afternoon.
Mr Clegg met local journalists in the Memorial gardens on his way back from a visit to Henley, to show support for his party’s candidate, Stephen Kearney.
From the age of eleven, Clegg lived near Chinnor and his mother still lives at Wainhill. He said that he often comes to Thame to shop at Waitrose and that it felt strange for him to have to ‘switch to political gear’ in a place he feels so much at home in.

On political issues, the candidate himself, Stephen Kearney, was asked what chance his party felt he had of over-turning Boris Johnson’s 12,000 majority. His reply was that the Lib Dems had overturned big Conservative majorities in the past at both Bromley and Winchester, and Nick Clegg added that his own seat in Sheffield was ‘true blue’ before he overturned a big majority there.

On local issues, Stephen Kearney spoke of his determination to fight for Oxfordshire’s green spaces and the encroachment of bigger towns like Aylesbury on Market towns and to work against the influence of large supermarkets on independent shops. He said that he felt it was inevitable that the cattlemarket will move and that when it does, he will “work with local people to get local housing, a mix of retail and offices and above all a community facility.”

He added that he was “very excited” at the prospect of fighting to follow on from Boris, with Nick Clegg adding: “This area is used to big characters and Stephen is well suited to the task.”