Friday, August 20, 2021

Rutland's new Lib Dem councillor fought Rushcliffe for the Liberal Party at the 1970 general election

Last night Paul Browne won a Rutland Council by-election for the Liberal Democrats, polling two-thirds of the vote in the Oakham South ward and gaining it from the Conservatives.

People soon started tweeting that he had fought a seat for the Liberal Party at the 1970 general election.

The trouble was that no one said which one it was. I checked, and it wasn't the Rutland and Stamford constituency that existed in those days.

Thanks to a comment on last night's post, I can now reveal that Paul fought Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire. He came third and the seat was gained from Labour by a promising young Tory called Kenneth Clarke.

2 comments:

Matt Pennell said...

Word on the street is Browne always told his Liberal friends, 'I'm just waiting for that Clarke guy to falter in Rushcliffe and the moment he's out of the way South Nottinghamshire will be mine, all mine ahahahahahahahaha.'

It's taken 50 years to convince him to stand somewhere else.

Jonathan Calder said...

I'm hearing that too.