Matt O’Connor drops out
The English Democrats London mayoral candidate has withdrawn from the election.
This is a bit disappointing and it won’t do the cause any good. I expect that Boris will be the main beneficiary of the estimated 1% who were going to vote for Matt.
Personally I think that the English Democrats should concentrate all their efforts at the local level from now on.
Tags: English Democrats, Matt O'Connor
April 25th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
PRESS RELEASE
25 April 2008
For immediate release
Matt O’Connor’s ‘resignation’ as London Mayoral Candidate
Robin Tilbrook, the Chairman of the English Democrats said:- “I am obviously very disappointed that Matt O’Connor has issued this statement but I have to admit, not entirely surprised. What I now say is in sorrow, because Matt has done the cause some good but, contrary to what he now claims, Matt approached the English Democrats Party to be our mayoral candidate. In January he came to our National Council meeting in Leicester to urge us to select him and promised to “give the campaign 110%”!
During several discussions, he was made fully aware of the problems confronting a candidate for a smaller political party which is challenging the Establishment Parties - not least the problem of raising sufficient funds to fight an election campaign especially given the lack of coverage of non Establishment candidates.
Within the bounds of our limited manpower and financial resources, Matt has been given 100% support by the English Democrats and our members who have campaigned for him, and England’s cause, day in day out for many weeks and who have paid for everything that has been done. At no time has any funds been received from Matt.
Unfortunately - and this is not a subject I would have wanted to air publicly had it not been for the statement released by Matt O’Connor this morning seeking to blame us - it became apparent that there were problems with Matt’s candidacy arising from his own personal problems, not least following his disappearance from the campaign for several days, to the extent that I advised him to seek professional counselling regarding alcohol abuse, which he did. Matt did not disclose this problem to us when he urged us to select him as our candidate.
Despite this counselling, Matt again went missing last Saturday; - neither his office nor his partner seemed to know of his whereabouts and he could not be contacted at home. Indeed the Party prepared a statement last night raising concerns at his disappearance, as we were becoming genuinely worried for his safety.
Now, he has stated that he has resigned, although he cannot, of course, at this late stage, remove his name from the ballot paper.
This is all a great pity for Matt personally - he obviously has personal issues that he needs to address - but it also a pity for English Democrats’ candidates standing for the London Assembly - of which we have a full slate. Their campaign is running well and we have great hopes of getting a candidate elected, particularly on the party list, to campaign against the Establishment’s discrimination against London and England. The campaign for fair spending for London, an end to the Tartan Taxes, and real democracy and freedom of speech, will go on.
So I urge the people of London to give their vote, particularly their list vote, to the English Democrats. England’s cause is far bigger and more important than any one individual!”
ENDS
Robin Tilbrook
Chairman
English Democrats Party
April 25th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I hate to say it but I saw this coming from day one. The appeal of a known figure standing for the EDP was obvious - the hope was that it would raise the profile of the party.