Shropshire Star

Bridgnorth's William Cash in bid to become Conservative MP two years after running for Ukip

He stood for Ukip two years ago – and today William Cash explained why he now wants to become a Conservative MP.

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Mr Cash, of Upton Cressett Hall near Bridgnorth, said June's general election could be a "landslide" for the Tory Party and said he was looking for a vacancy.

Writing in the Shropshire Star, he said that while in 2015, Ukip helped win the election for David Cameron, now it "is currently on life-support and by June 9 it could be dead".

He said: "One reason I am hoping to be selected by a Conservative constituency association is that winning the support of former Ukip voters will be critical, especially in Labour-held seats with majorities under 5,000. I have already proven I can do that and will hope to bring Ukip voters with me."

He listed Labour seats he believes he could win for the Tories, including Edgbaston in Birmingham, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Walsall North, Coventry South and North-West, Dudley North and all the Stoke seats.

Mr Cash, formerly a prominent Ukip campaigner, announced in February that he had joined the Conservatives.

He quit Ukip in August, saying he feared the party would lurch to the right and Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans, from Shrewsbury, said Mr Cash's contribution to the party would be missed.

The son of Staffordshire Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash, he joined Ukip in 2014 and was appointed the party's heritage and tourism spokesman.

He contested the ultra-marginal North Warwickshire seat for Ukip at the last general election where the Tories were defending a majority of just 50.

The Conservatives actually increased their majority to nearly 3,000, with Mr Cash coming third.

He said today: "I strongly believe that it is critical that Theresa May is returned to Downing Street with the strongest possible mandate from the British people to enter Brexit negotiations with the EU.

"To do this the Conservatives need to field as many experienced and media savvy local candidates as possible who have fought elections and have family and business roots in the region."

UKIP is on life-support so I am backing Tories

It is little coincidence that Theresa May chose to hit the election campaign trail in Wolverhampton and Dudley on Saturday, writes William Cash.

William Cash

What is clear is that the West Midlands – and particularly Labour held Midlands marginals will be the key election battleground on June 8.

With several weekend polls putting the Conservatives on target to win over 45-50 per cent of the vote, Labour are on course to lose at last two seats in Birmingham and as many as seven – if not more in the West Midlands.

For Labour it could be a political Somme. For Tory candidates in the Midlands, it could be the best opportunity they have had to sweep up Labour seats since Thatcher's landslide of 1987 – 30 years ago – when she won 42 per cent of the vote. This is the same figure the polls predicted May would win when she announced the snap election, standing on a patriotic 'one nation' platform that – like Margaret Thatcher – is aimed at working class Britain as much as the middle class.

If the polls are correct, Birmingham Edgbaston and Birmingham Northfields would be lost to the Conservatives from Labour. The Tories could take Coventry South and Coventry North West, Dudley North, Walsall North and Wolverhampton South West. Other vulnerable seats include Walsall North where sitting Labour MP David Winnick is already 83; also all the Stoke seats.

With Labour MPs like Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South-West) and Gisela Stuart (Edgbaston) standing down, and more likely retirements, there will now be a scramble in the next week for new candidates putting themselves forward to be selected. Jack Brereton, the young Tory candidate who stood for Stoke Central at the recent by-election is now said to be thinking of applying to another Labour held Midlands seat with a majority of less than 1,000.

These parliamentary hopefuls also include myself should I be selected by a Conservative Association. I fought the previous election, standing strategically in 2015 for the marginal seat of North Warwickshire for UKIP as heritage and tourism spokesman for the party. After a hard fought battle against veteran Labour minister Mike O' Brien – who stormed out after the election count without giving a speech – I succeeded in defeating Labour's hopes of gaining its number one target seat by getting more than 8,000 votes. This ensured that the Tories won an unexpected and critical Midlands seat.

Now I have joined the Tories, I strongly believe that it is critical that Theresa May is returned to Downing Street with the strongest possible mandate from the British people to enter Brexit negotiations with the EU. To do this the Conservatives need to field as many experienced and media savvy local candidates as possible who have fought elections and have family and business roots in the region.

As is so often in the case at defining moments in our history – which Britain's departure from the EU certainly is – the Midlands has provided the political stage set and battleground, often bloody, that has shaped our country's destiny. Whether it was the creation of the 'one nation' Mercian kingdom by Alfred the Great, the Wars of the Roses, the Civil War (from Naseby to the Battle of Worcester) to Germany's bombing of Coventry in 1940 (where my family had their Cash's name-tape factories and helped re-build the city with new housing and schools); or the 2015 election which led to Brexit, the Midlands has helped to forge the pivotal events of England's history.

Whilst it will be the Midlands and the North where the size of the Conservative's likely victory will be decided, it is imperative that Tory voters do not become complacent or apathetic. They can't afford to let any marginal seats slip away. All Labour seats with majorities under 10,000 are up for being taken. Tory brogues will already be pounding on the pavements and village streets. The party will need to once again prove why Conservative Associations are not all about wine and cheese parties; and why their volunteer activists are the most ruthless and effective ground troops of any party in Europe.

But there is a genuinely important difference between this election and 2015, especially in the Midlands. In 2015, UKIP greatly helped the Tories by sucking up large droves of working class votes in constituencies like Telford, North Warwickshire, Dudley, Wolverhampton (the latter two which they only just lost). Indeed, UKIP effectively won Cameron the 2015 election by taking votes away from Labour. On June 8th, this UKIP vote is likely to all but evaporate. UKIP is currently on life-support and by June 9 it could be dead.

This is potentially dangerous to the Tories. Will former Labour voters who think Corbyn is a metropolitan joke now switch to the Tories, just as working class voters supported Thatcher in the 1980s? Or will some, especially those in towns like Shrewsbury and Ludlow, switch to Liberal Democrats? There is a much stronger latent under-current of support for the Lib Dems in Shropshire than many people might think.

After all, my very own constituency of Ludlow – incorporating my local market town of Bridgnorth – fell to the Lib Dems in 2001 with a 13.5 per cent swing away from the Tories (after Christopher Gill stepped down) to Matthew Green who defeated Tory candidate Martin-Taylor Smith by over two thousand votes. In 2005, the excellent Philip Dunne was adopted as the Tory candidate yet only just scraped in by just over a thousand votes with the Lib Dems winning almost 19,000 votes.

That Lib Dem figure is enough to keep any Tory candidate awake at night, not the least as there are going too be a sizeable number of 'Remain ' voters (from both Labour, Tories, and the Green Party) who simply cannot bring themselves to vote for Corbyn but will probably vote for the Lib Dems as a Brexit protest vote.

One reason I am hoping to be selected by a Conservative constituency association is that winning the support of former UKIP voters will be critical, especially in Labour held seats with majorities under 5,000. I have already proven I can do that and will hope to bring UKIP voters with me. My wish list of currently-held Labour seats to represent would include Edgbaston (as a life long Warwickshire Cricket Club fan), Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Walsall North, Coventry South and North-West, Dudley North and all the Stoke seats.

I am hoping my experience of being a national business magazine editor and current affairs journalist, along with my winning the support of so many Labour voters in 2015 will also be useful in persuading Tory-turned-UKIP voters to switch back to the Conservatives, as I have done. My most pressing need right now, however, is to find a Midlands seat yet to select its Tory candidate.

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