Sir Ed Davey Visits Taunton

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, was in Taunton on Friday  [31/03/23] night.

He was attending the inaugural meeting of the party’s South West Business Network, held at the Brewhouse Theatre.

Sir Ed predicted that local Parliamentary candidate Gideon Amos would become MP for the new Taunton constituency, also covering Wellington, at the next General Election.

“Liberal Democrats are back in the South West,” he said.

“We showed that with our amazing Parliamentary by-election in Tiverton, Honiton and East Devon when Richard Foord beat the Conservatives.

“We showed that across the whole of Somerset with an amazing victory in the local elections in 2022 and I think, at the General Election, we can do really well.

“We’ve got some great candidates and, here in Taunton, we’ve got the amazing Gideon Amos and I think he’s going to be the next MP for the new constituency of Taunton and Wellington”.

The gathering of businesspeople from across the region, along with party members and officials, was welcomed by Mr Amos who described Taunton as “a town on the up”, citing new developments in the town centre, work started recently at Firepool and arts attractions like the Brewhouse.

Guests also heard from Cllr Bill Revans on his final day as Leader of Somerset County Council before it became the new Somerset Council.

He said the aim of the unitary authority would be to produce “a fairer society and a flourishing society.”

Sir Ed said it was great to be in the South West to witness the success of the party over the past few years.

“I’d also like to thank all those people who are currently campaigning for us because we want there to be a lot more Liberal Democrat MPs after the next General Election.”

He added: “Where we are strong – particularly in local Government – people realise that we are the party to vote for.”