News from Warrington Liberal Democrats, winners of an excellent by-election victory in April:

Grappenhall borough councillor Ryan Bate will stand in Warrington South and David Crowther in Warrington North. Cllr Ian Marks, chairman of Warrington’s Liberal Democrats, said: “The next General Election is not due for a few years but with the crazy state of politics in this country it may be sooner rather than later. “The Conservative Government is in complete disarray and Labour is bitterly divided between their different factions. “Having our candidates in place gives us a focus for both our national and local campaigning.” [Warrington Guardian]

It’s good to see such a wide range of seats getting on with selecting Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) so early on in this Parliament.

Early selection is wise given the level of political uncertainty around. It’s also been a regular (if not quite universal) part of the formula for winning seats to add to the number of Lib Dem MPs.

Plus for the majority of seats for whom that point isn’t yet relevant, having a good PPC in place can provide a vital extra element of leadership, initiative and motivation to get on with building up the local party, recruiting more members, improving the local activist base’s diversity and winning more council seats. (If you want ideas on what to do with such opportunities and how to make the most of them, there’s a certain a book.)

There’s a full list of Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate selections so far here.

Keep up with news about Lib Dem selections

If you’d like to be notified by email when further posts about Liberal Democrat selections appear on this blog, just sign up here. (Note: if you’re already signed up for a daily email alert with all my new blog posts, then there’s no need to sign up for these alerts too as the stories will also be in the full daily digest.)

