The Conservative candidate for Tiverton and Honiton has blamed the media for preventing the public from “passing” Partygate and has twice refused to say that Boris Johnson was honest.
In an interview with The Guardian, Helen Hurford acknowledged that the party was facing a very tough battle to keep the previously ultra-safe seat and criticized what she called the “persistent regurgitation of Partygate” by the media. When asked if he thought Boris Johnson was fundamentally honest, Hurford twice refused to say so.
Hurford, a former Honiton director and councilor who now runs a beauty training business, defends a majority of more than 24,000 people won in 2019 by MP Neil Parish, who resigned in April after admitting who had seen pornography on his phone in the Commons. room.
But the June 23 by-election, which takes place on the same day the Conservatives are defending another seat in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is widely regarded as a tight race between Hurford and Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Foord.
The Liberal Democrats’ internal polls, which are set to be voted on by election day on Wednesday, put the Conservatives at 46% and the Democrats at 44%.
“I think it’s going to be very tight, and we can’t take anything for granted,” Hurford said. “It could be reduced to a very small number.”
When asked why a seat that has been occupied by Conservatives in its various geographical variations for more than a century was now under threat, Hurford said voter issues included the cost of living and “what happen to Neil Parish “.
He added: “And thirdly, the persistent regurgitation of the Partygate media, even though there has been a line drawn in the sand and there has been a report, is constantly in the news and people can’t get over it. ”
“So, of course, that’s shocking. That’s what I’m also hearing at the door: people are tired and tired of seeing it. They’re fed up and tired of hearing it. They want to talk about what’s important.”
When asked if this meant the media was partly to blame for the Conservatives’ struggles in the seat, Hurford said: “It’s not necessarily the media’s fault, but I think it’s time to stop. of having a change of narrative about what is important. “
Hurford said he understood voters’ concerns about confidence as a result of Downing Street parties, adding: “All I can say is that the by-election is to choose a representative for Tiverton and Honiton, your next “As a former director, I have a lot of confidence. When I say I will do something, I do it. That is what is important: the person who will represent you in Westminster.”
When asked if Johnson was equally reliable, he declined to answer directly, saying, “I will give my loyalty to someone the party has given a third term to. That has happened. We must move on.”
Asked a second time if Johnson was fundamentally honest, she replied, “I think Boris thinks he’s an honest person. How I behave is how I behave, and I think you’re trying to catch me here.”
When finally asked if he was comfortable joining a Johnson-led parliamentary party, he replied: once, shown the support of the majority of the party.This is what I will go.Everything else has happened.I am looking to the future.
“I do not want to play party politics. I don’t want to be drawn to things that have happened. I want to talk about what I can offer Tiverton and Honiton. “