Chelmsford Lib Dems buck trend and increase vote share.

After a winning more votes than any other party in the County Council elections in May, Chelmsford Liberal Democrats went into the General Election relatively optimistic. However, as both the Conservatives and Labour shifted the focus of the campaign to a "Presidential" battle between their leaders, the Lib Dems were squeezed.

Chelmsford's Lib Dem candidate Stephen Robinson has thanked everyone for their warm reception over the recent weeks. It has been a long campaign, with the General Election starting straight after the Lib Dems won the local elections across the Chelmsford constituency on 4th May.

This election is a vote

The NHS service in Mid Essex, including Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, could lose 173 staff as a result of Theresa May's extreme version of Brexit, the Liberal Democrats have warned.

42% of nurses and over half of all doctors from the EU are considering leaving because of Brexit, according to recent research. This means in Mid Essex, an estimated 173 NHS staff are at risk of leaving including 32 doctors and 97 nurses.

The Conservative party's so-called "Dementia Tax" would cost £173,282 to the family of someone who had received ten years of care living in an average-priced home in Chelmsford, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservative policy would take the money from the sale of family homes, to pay back the costs of caring for elderly and vulnerable relatives. The Lib Dems have estimated that, across Chelmsford, 62% of the value of the average home would be taken to pay for the Dementia Tax.

Chelmsford schools face two worrying developments - across the board cuts in funding and a possible shortage of school places. Chelmsford schools face losing £8 million in total over the next two years. That amounts to anything between £400 and £800 per pupil, which means cuts in teacher numbers. See http://schoolcuts.org.uk

Stephen Robinson has a track record as a hard-working, Chelmsford campaigner and Councillor, and now wants to stand up for local residents at Westminster as our MP.

On 4th May 2017 the Lib Dems won more votes than the Conservatives in the local elections across the Chelmsford constituency. So on 8th June it will either be: Stephen Robinson, or the Conservative outsider (parachuted in from Cambridge) who is elected as the MP.

Essex County Council Results for Chelmsford

Chelmsford Liberal Democrats are celebrating holding their three county council seats. In the Chelmsford parliamentary constituency, there are 3 Lib Dems and 2.5 Conservatives (half a seat outside the constituency).

This confims the Lib Dems as the challengers at all levels to the Conservatives, in particular at the upcoming General Election.

Since 2010 the Conservatives have been waging a war on young people. But now Theresa May has given you the chance to fight back!

A recent report by the Intergenerational Fairness Index found there had been a drop of 10% in prospects for young people in a range of areas [1]. As we will demonstrate below, that is due to the policies of the Conservative party. This can be contrasted to the fortunes of their grandparents. The triple lock pension has resulted in a significant hike in income, pensioner property wealth now totals £861 billion and the ONS says that retirees saw their incomes increase by 5.1 per cent between 2007/08 and 2011/12. This trend has continued.

We need a bold new approach to improving mental health focused on prevention, including giving discounts to business rates for companies that take concrete steps to improve well-being in the workplace.

We also need a pay rise for NHS staff and demanded that Theresa May give EU nationals working in the NHS the right to stay now.

The IFS has demolished Boris Johnson's repeated claim that Brexit will lead to an £350m for the NHS.

In a letter to The Times, the IFS's deputy director Carl Emmerson points out that overall Brexit is actually set to damage the public finances and lead to "net fiscal loss."

This is a point made by the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast and adopted by the government.

At our conference today, the Liberal Democrats have agreed to a raft of new policies which will see stricter penalties for companies that break the law, as part of a series of measures to improve corporate governance.

This would include scrapping the need to establish intent or guilt of a senior executive in cases of corporate failure, meaning that companies themselves could be held criminally liable.

In the wake of the recent terrorist outrages it's clear that we need a bold change of strategy to defeat terrorism and counter violent extremism.

To do that, at our Autumn Conference today we have proposed a bold new strategy to defeat terror. At the heart of the strategy being proposed is proper funding and resourcing for the community police.

In surprising news today, the Head of the Deparment for Exiting the European Union, Oliver Robbins has quit to take up a new role after a series of disagreements with David Davis.

I'm glad someone has found an exit from Brexit.

Unfortunately for the government, it's the civil servant who was meant to be leading it.

According to charities, councils and housing associations, the rollout of the universal credit is a disaster in slow-motion.

A mandatory six-week wait to receive a first payment is causing people serious difficulties, with over half of new claimants having to borrow money to make ends meet. Universal Credit's policy of making claimants pay landlords

Fire safety has to be put at the forefront of new building regulations in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

That is abundantly clear - and that's why, today, the Liberal Democrats have voted to give a stronger role to the social housing regulator, and are pushing for a package of measures to improve fire safety and building regulations.

In April 2016, I wrote to the UK Statistics Authority over the Vote Leave campaign's claim £350m a week is sent to the EU.

In his reply the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Andrew Dilnot CBE, said that VoteLeave's use of the figure was "potentially misleading."

The fact that Boris Johnson continues to use it, despite having been told repeatedly that it's nonsense, means it is just not credible for him to remain in Government.