By Anthony Webber,
Accountability and transparency sadly lacking in campaign.
The Kingswood by-election takes place on Thursday February 15th 2024.
Kingswood is a constituency in South Gloucestershire which is currently vacant. It was represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Chris Skidmore (a Conservative) from 2010 until his resignation in January 2024.
The seat is due to be abolished for the next general election.
On 26 November 2022, Skidmore announced that he would not seek re-election at the next election. On 5 January 2024, Skidmore announced he would resign from parliament “as soon as possible” in protest at the introduction of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill. On 8 January 2024, he formally resigned as an MP which triggered a by-election.
There are just six candidates standing.
They are the four mainstream parties plus the Reform UK party and UKIP.
The latter two parties have disappointed some by not having an agreement to not stand against each other.
This is because they have similar policies on achieving net zero immigration and to reversing the general woke agenda, as well as other policies.
All the candidates were sent an elected questionnaire to respond to, the purpose being to ascertain their views about key foreign policy issues which the public are concerned about.
Despite numerous reminders, only two candidates had the courtesy to respond, the Liberal Democratic Andrew Charles Brown and the UKIP Nicholas David Wood. They deserve credit for being open and transparent on their views.
This appalling attitude of those who did not respond shows the arrogance and contempt some aspiring politicians can show. At a time when the public desperately want to have politicians who show respect to their voters, it is a real let down.
It is an indication of how they would treat the public if elected and is a very good test of the quality of a potential politician.
It is important for politicians to be prepared to engage with the public and to defend their own point of view. Their views matter of course, but their preparedness to debate does too.
The Tucker Carlson interview of President Putin of Russia , which is a game changer, has come about too late in this campaign to bring about open and honest debate, not just on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, but the Israel/Palestine one too.
What is significant is that prior to this, only two candidates were prepared to speak up on these issues, which puts the others in a very poor light indeed.
The official list of candidates is listed below, together with the election results of the 2019 General Election.
After that the responses to the questionnaire are given and some concluding points to the article.
| 2024 Kingswood by-election | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Conservative | Sam Bromiley | ||||
| Labour | Damien Egan | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Andrew Brown | ||||
| Green | Lorraine Francis | ||||
| Reform UK | Rupert Lowe | ||||
| UKIP | Nicholas Wood | ||||
| Majority | |||||
| Turnout | |||||
| Registered electors | |||||
Elections in the 2010s[edit]
| General election 2019: Kingswood[12] | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Conservative | Chris Skidmore | 27,712 | 56.2 | +1.3 | |
| Labour | Nicola Bowden-Jones | 16,492 | 33.4 | –6.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Dine Romero | 3,421 | 6.9 | +3.3 | |
| Green | Joseph Evans | 1,200 | 2.4 | +0.4 | |
| Animal Welfare | Angelika Cowell | 489 | 1.0 | New | |
| Majority | 11,220 | 22.8 | +7.4 | ||
| Turnout | 49,314 | 71.5 | +1.3 | ||
| Registered electors | 68,972 | ||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +3.7 | |||
Candidates’ responses to questions:
Andrew Brown, Liberal Democrats
Hi Anthony – responses below:
Do you believe the UK government ( and Opposition) need to urgently review UK Foreign policy in respect of Ukraine and Russia?
No
Russia has chosen to invade the sovereign territory of the Ukraine and seeks to annex substantial portions of the country; I stand with the people of Ukraine, their democratically elected government, and their parliament, against the autocratic and illegal actions of Putin.
Do you believe that the UK government should end military support to Ukraine now and change to becoming a peace- making country?
I don’t accept the premise of this question, nor the false dichotomy presented. In order for there to be peace, Putin would have to demonstrate that he was prepared to negotiate in good faith – should he do so, then I would support efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement, although to my mind this would have to include Russia’s full withdrawal from Ukraine. In any case, he has patently failed to demonstrate a willingness to act in good faith, and meanwhile he continues to be the aggressor in the war.
Do you believe that there should be free and open debate on all aspects of the UK government’s ( and Opposition’s) Ukraine and Russia policies?
Again, I don’t recognise this characterisation of the reporting of the conflict.
With reference to the conflict regarding Israel which started with Hamas in Gaza, and which is worsening, do you believe that the UK government should focus on being a peace-maker in the Middle East?
My party has been very clear in calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire, the release of all hostages, urgent aid to those in need, and an intensive diplomatic effort to move towards a two-state solution in the region. The UK should have a role to play in that.
5.) A Parliamentary Petition has just been launched to ask for a referendum on both these issues, as both have no mandate from the British public. Do you support this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/655150
I do not, for the reasons outlined in my previous responses, and for the broader constitutional reason that we do not have a system of government via plebiscite in the way that some other countries/US States do. More pragmatically, there will be a General Election within a year when voters will be able to take these issues into account when making their choice.
Regards,
Andrew
Andrew Brown
He/me
David Wood, UKIP candidate
Dear Mr Webber,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Regarding your points in bold text numbered 1 & 3, plus the parliamentary petition – yes.
Points 2 & 4 are, frankly … pointless.
Well intentioned, but hopeless.
None of the combatants would take any notice of any outside bodies/countries’ attempts at moderation unless support for the fighting was withdrawn, and those same supporters/contributors had been vitally important to either side (of either conflict) until then.
The lying mainstream media and Lib-Lab-Con trick politicians wish to portray input from Britain as critical to anyone and everyone, but it is not. Peace is not going to happen due to a load of waffle being spouted by the spineless ‘British establishment’.
Yours,
Dr Nicholas Wood,
United Kingdom Independence Party candidate
People may or may not agree with these candidates’ responses but those who did not bother to respond were:
Samuel Bromiley, Conservative
Damien Egan, Labour
Lorraine Francis, Green party
Rupert Lowe, ReformUK party
The above four wanted to avoid giving their answers to the public on these very important foreign policy decisions.
Their parties want to avoid these issues too. Is that what the public want or deserve out of our supposedly democratic and accountable system?
The reader will make their own judgement, but this gang of four will probably have their neglect not highlighted by the local and national media.
Anthony Webber
Independent Political Commentator
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