18 Jun 2024
When Rishi Sunak announced the date for the long-awaited General Election last month, the St Albans candidate for Reform UK swiftly announced he was standing down.
John Dowdle told supporters he had always been clear that if someone else were to come along who would want to take on the role he would be happy to stand aside.
That person was said to be Sam Woodruff, but no further details of him or her were forthcoming in the following weeks.
Now John’s name is back on the ballot paper again.
He explained: “In my capacity as St Albans organiser for Reform UK, I had barely completed submitting the local election candidates’ election expenses returns to SADC when Rishi Sunak decided to embark on his “Things Can Only Get Wetter” routine in Downing Street.
“Up till then, I think most people assumed a General Election would not be taking place until October or November of this year. Sunak’s surprise announcement that it would – instead – be held within six weeks may just not have been convenient for the new Reform UK candidate.
“All I can really tell you for sure is that I was contacted by regional officials just over a week ago and asked if I would be prepared to stand in the General Election in St Albans. I responded affirmatively as I believe the electors of St Albans are entitled to have the maximum choice of candidates.”
Having effectively lost two weeks’ of time, John admits it will be harder to campaign effectively in the days he has left.
“My understanding is that Reform UK will be circulating national-level leaflets for delivery to all homes in constituencies where they have candidates between now and when postal votes will be posted back to the Civic Centre.
“I am currently working on getting a local leaflet produced for delivery in key St Albans constituency wards. Any financial and/or leaflet delivery assistance being offered will be much appreciated!”
Like Conservative candidate James Spencer, John believes one of the major local problems is having a district council of the same party as the incumbent MP – namely the Liberal Democrats.
“My stance is that this fails in that the MP is unable to hold the council to account for their actions and inactions which fail the people of St Albans. It would be better if local people elected me as their MP, from which position I would be better able to advocate their interests to the officers and councillors of SADC.
“Examples where the controlling party in St Albans has failed is their utter betrayal of those voters who supported them when they said they would oppose all developments on St Albans Green Belt land.
“Instead, they have adopted a policy of building 15,000 new properties and associated infrastructure on Green Belt land. Their proposed changes to car parking charges and the centuries-old market in the city centre will decimate small local businesses in the city centre.
“Not all change is necessarily good and – for once – someone needs to stand up to the local council on behalf of local residents. I will do that.”
He said whether he goes out canvassing locally will depend on whether he receives sufficient local help.
“There is not much time to organise this in any major way so I will have to hope that local media such as your St Albans Times can help me to get information across to local residents. If there are any hustings events taking place in St Albans, I am very happy to attend these events in order to explain what our local and national policies are to local residents. There is not really time to work with our colleagues in Harpenden so we are focused primarily on the 13 SADC wards which comprise the St Albans parliamentary constituency.”
John welcomed the news that Nigel Farage has not only become Reform UK leader, but is standing as an MP in the constituency of Clacton in Essex.
“I think Nigel Farage has already made a huge difference to Reform UK’s profile and electoral prospects. His extremely polished and authentic performance during the 7 Parties Debate saw him top all the post-programme polls.
“Nigel Farage is a massive asset for any UK political party to have and fantastic for Reform UK. Paid-up membership of Reform UK grows rapidly on a weekly basis and in national opinion polls we are catching up the Tories and are ahead of the Liberal Democrats. While it is unlikely that we can be outright winners of the 2024 General Election, we could – we believe – end up becoming the main opposition party in Parliament to the Labour Party.”
