The Conservative Party’s Westminster candidate has said that he is “the only remotely centre-right option on the ballot paper in North Down”. Mark Brotherston described a vote for any of his opponents as “a vote that risks putting Ed Miliband into Number 10 Downing Street and Ed Balls back into Number 11”.
“It’s an extraordinary situation for a constituency like North Down, where there are strong traditions of people holding Conservative values, starting their own businesses and engaging with UK politics, but this field has a strongly centre-left bias”, Mark observed. “Lady Sylvia Hermon has hardly made a secret of her sympathies for the Labour Party, but we’ve also seen the Ulster Unionists pull out of the race and the DUP say that they might do a deal to put Ed Miliband into government. The Conservative Party has been left as the only option in the field which is committed unambiguously to preventing Labour taking the keys to Number 10.”
“The national battle at this election is the most important in a generation, because the fate of our economy is at stake. Conservatives in government have tackled the debt, turned around our economy and presided over a jobs boom, which is starting to have an impact in North Down, despite parties at Stormont slowing down our progress. It would be madness to risk the recovery, jobs and businesses, by putting Labour back in power. On doorsteps, people in North Down keep telling me that they’d rather have David Cameron as Prime Minister than Ed Miliband. My message has been simple, that if they don’t vote Mark Brotherston on May 7th, then their vote is risking Labour getting back in power.”