Election 2010 update: Tory candidates from the children's sector fail to win seats
Ross Watson
Friday, May 7, 2010
Two highly publicised Conservative candidates from the children and young people's sector failed to get into parliament last night in tightly fought constituency battles.
Shaun Bailey, outspoken youth worker and founder of youth charity My Generation, missed out on the Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush seat by around 3,000 votes to Labour MP Andy Slaughter. In Sutton and Cheam, Phillipa Stroud, director of Conservative think-tank The Centre for Social Justice, lost out to Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow by fewer than 2,000 votes.
Both candidates were contesting seats marked as key targets for the Conservatives. Bailey has often been described as a poster-boy for the Tories' youthful image. The Centre for Social Justice has also been influential in informing much of the Conservative Party's family policies.
The Liberal Democrats also failed to get their youth policy adviser Linda Jack into parliament. Also youth adviser for the Financial Services Authority, Jack faced an uphill battle against Tory MP Nadine Dorries for the Mid Bedfordshire seat.
Dorries won the Tory safe-seat by more than 15,000 votes, with Jack in distant second. Jack said she would continue to support her party's youth agenda. But she was stunned that the Liberal Democrats' new-found popularity failed to translate into votes.
"I just don't know what on earth happened last night," she said. "We really thought we would get some extra seats through the enthusiasm from young people."
Jack raised concerns that many children's services may be seen as expendable and victim to cuts if the Conservatives get into power.
