As a result of the Heathrow expansion our long-term MP Zac Goldsmith recently resigned as an MP. In fact, he did so in Barnes Primary school’s year 6 class room. Now there has just been a by-election held and it turned out that his opponent, Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney, was the stronger candidate.
The two main candidates were Sarah Olney from the Liberal Democrats, and Zac Goldsmith. Although both of them are against a Heathrow expansion (a very important issue to the locals), Sarah was fighting for EU and Goldsmith was clearly against EU. This turned out to be the end of the line for him since most voters in his constituency voted Remain in the June vote.
The only clear difference between the two candidates was the Brexit view. What Zac didn’t know was how many people were turning against him after he played a key part in the Brexit vote, and his arguments in the mayoral election (that he also lost).
Olney is not at all as “famous” as Goldsmith, but working on the Bremain-side turned out to be a winner for her. A timeline in her leaflet showed that she has been campaigning against Heathrow a long time, so she ticked that box with the voters too. She also had her campaigners knock on over 30000 people’s doors over the last weekend.
Let’s see what’s going to change in Richmond with the Lib Dems in power!