Richard Foord tells Honiton Nub News: ‘Our by-election result helped unseat Boris’

Honiton Nub News caught up with the newly elected Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord.

The 44-year-old dad-of-three lives in Uffculme and is a former Army major, serving in Iraq and the Balkans. Before being elected as an MP he worked for the University of Oxford.

Mr Foord was elected in last month's vote which was trigged by the resignation of Neil Parish, who admitted to watching pornography in the House of Commons. Mr Foord overturned a Conservative majority of 24,000 and caused a swing of 30%. It is the first time that Tiverton and Honiton is not represented by a Conservative MP.

 According to the new MP, the by-election caused a 'political earthquake' and woke the Conservatives up to the reality that there is 'deep unhappiness' - not only with Boris Johnson, but the party as a whole.

Boris Johnson was forced to resign yesterday (Thursday 7 July) after 60 MPs quit their government roles. Responding to the latest developments, Mr Foord said: "Boris was the last person to work out that he had to resign. Pretty much everyone else in the country had worked it out.

"It was overdue, but it was the right move. I hope that he doesn't cling on much longer. The fact that he'll be a caretaker Prime Minister for the next few months is a concern."

"As Ed Davey [the leader of the Liberal Democrats] said, the notion that he can be a caretaker Prime Minister is laughable, given he's never taken care of anything in his life before."

Mr Johnson plans to remain in place as Prime Minister over the summer until a new leader is voted in. The race to replace him has begun, with ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss all likely to stand.

However, Mr Foord believes that the discontent with the Conservative party is caused by more than a simple dislike of Boris Johnson: "The deep unhappiness relates to serious problems that the country faces, and the Conservatives are failing to deal with those problems. I'm not sure a change in leader will be enough. 

"We'd welcome a general election. Our by-election showed that there is real discomfort with this government, and it runs deeper than just Boris Johnson.

"We caused an electoral earthquake and the Conservatives have woken up. Devon won't be taken for granted anymore.

"The Tiverton and Honiton constituency votes can take some credit for speaking up for the country and they made waves with their vote. Credit to our neighbours for helping to unseat Boris Johnson. "

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