Cornish Lib Dem MPs welcome new Scottish colleague
Today the MPs for Cornwall congratulated fellow Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie on his resounding win in the Dunfermline By-Election, held yesterday.
Willie has strong links with Cornwall, having been a key architect in the 1992 General Election which brought Paul Tyler to power in North Cornwall and increased the Lib Dem share of the vote in both St Ives and SE Cornwall. His wife Janet was also a local councillor at the time,
before they both returned to Fife in the late 1990s to continue to campaign for the Liberal Democrats.
Commenting on the news, MP for North Cornwall Dan Rogerson said:
"When I first got involved in politics at the age of 16, I learnt a lot from Willie. He is a formidable campaigner and will make a tremendous MP."
"The result shows that the Liberal Democrats are winning the hearts and minds of people right across the United Kingdom, and I look forward to welcoming Willie to Westminster on Monday."
Andrew George, MP for St.Ives, said:
"Everyone who knew Willie when he was in Cornwall were impressed by his kindness, good judgment and his energy. We were quietly confident he would spring a surprise in Scotland.
"Compared to the astonishingly uncritical honeymoon period given to the Tory Leader we have braved the worst of storms and come out with the political support that counts – votes in ballot boxes. You can never write off the Liberal Democrats, onward and upward from here."
ENDS
Notes:
Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrat candidate, overturned an 11,000 Labour majority with a 15.6% swing, to win the seat with a majority of 1800 votes.
The result of the Dunfermline and West-Fife by-election was a follows:
Liberal Democrats 12,391
Labour 10,591
SNP 7,261
Conservative 2,702
The swings were as follows:
Labour to Lib Dems 16.2%
Conservative to Lib Dems 9.1%
