The Tories’ candidate in Mid Bedfordshire has been campaigning against his own party’s erosion of green belt land.
Festus Akinbusoye, the Conservative candidate to replace ex-minister Nadine Dorries in this week’s by-election, has promised a vote for him will ‘protect the green belt’. He’s also asked voters to sign a petition to “introduce a ‘Green Belt Lock’ on any new developments until the services to go with them are in place and the ‘community agrees they can proceed’.
But he didn’t mention that the Conservative-controlled local council had signed off the biggest erosion of green belt land out of all English council areas last year. The council, run by the Tories until May 2023, adopted the Central Bedfordshire local plan in 2021/22, which saw new boundaries drawn up for the green belt - and led to a reduction of 1,290 hectares.
That’s equivalent to 1,500 international football pitches or an estate more than 80 times the size of Buckingham Palace. A local source said: “Festus should fess up about his party’s record. Whether you agree with building on the green belt or not, he’s got to admit it was his party who signed it off.” The local Conservatives have been contacted for comment.
It comes as campaigning in the Tory stronghold of Mid-Bedfordshire enters its final days and voters prepare to head to the ballot box on Thursday. Despite Ms Dorries winning a whopping majority of 24,664 at the 2019 general election, opposition parties are hopeful of causing a major Tory upset.
Michelle Mone's husband gifted Tories 'over £171k' as Covid PPE row rumbles on
A poll last month suggested there has been a major drop in Tory support in the area with both Rishi Sunak's party and Labour tied on 20%. The Liberal Democrats, who also claim they can win the seat, were on 15%. But the polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice has previously warned Mr Sunak's party could cling on to the seat due to the split in the anti-Tory vote.
He told PoliticsHome in the summer: “If there is any by-election where the Tories can hold on to the seat amid difficult circumstances, it’s probably Mid Bedfordshire, because both parties [Labour and the Liberal Democrats] are determined to fight the seat,” he said.
“The Tory vote could collapse but they could still hang on to it. So, perhaps the thing we should be looking at is not who wins, but by how much the Tory vote goes down.” The loyal Boris Johnson ally Ms Dorries officially resigned as an MP in August - almost 12 weeks after first pledging to do so - and launched a bitter attack on Mr Sunak. Ms Dorries accused the PM of presiding over a "zombie Parliament", adding: "You hold the office of PM unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs".
* Follow Mirror Politics on , , and
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
