This past month the CCF has been out on the road to campaign for CCF candidates standing in the elections.
The first top of our top took us to Thurrock where we campaigned for Evelina Vulpe, Conservative candidate in the Grays Riverside ward. Evelina is the CCF's Events Manager and has previously worked in David Burrowes MP's parliamentary and constituency offices in the 2015 General Election. She fought hard in a tightly contested election between Conservatives, Labour and UKIP, and managed increased the Conservative vote.
We travelled north to Wales we canvassed on the doorstep for Darren Millar, Conservative candidate in Clwyd West. Darren worked as North West Regional Manager for Open Doors before his election to the assembly in 2007, and attends North Coast Church in Towyn. We were very pleased to see from local residents significant backing for Darren to continue his fight to secure real change and a better future in North West Wales. This is reflected in the election results as Darren increased his majority from 4,200 to more than 5,000 votes. The CCF would like to congratulate Darren for his success and his 30-strong team for an impressive campaign, which saw them visit over 10,000 homes in the Clwyd West constituency.
Our next destination was the Scottish constituency of Mid Fife and Glenrothes where we campaigned for IMPACT Course alumni Alex Stewart-Clark to be elected to the Scottish Parliament. We began by campaigning on a street stall in Leven, door knocking and conducting voter surveys in Largo, followed by a visit to Leslie Baptist Church with Alex on Sunday. Alex fought in Glenrothes seat in the 2015 general election where he increased the Conservative vote. He is a long-standing supporter of the CCF and his IMPACT group’s project on the Family Test resulted in the Government adopting the policy in 2014. On polling day Alex increased the Conservative vote share in his constituency by nearly 10%, as the Scottish Conservatives overtook Labour as the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament and broke the SNP's majority. The CCF are also delighted to welcome back CCF Patron Murdo Fraser MSP to the Scottish Parliament and welcome newly elected CCF supporter Jeremy Balfour MSP.
Finally the CCF returned to Wales to support Dan Boucher and George Jabbour. We helped to deliver letters and leaflets to voters alongside colleagues from Conservatives Outreach. We were joined by international guests from Bosnia and Sri Lanka who were invited by our Outreach colleagues to join us on the campaign trail. Dan is the Director of Public Affairs for CARE and was a regional candidate for South Wales West. George, born in Syria to a Christian family, was an investment banker, is small business owner and stood in the target seat of Brigend where he faced the Labour First Minister Carwyn Jones. George obtained a remarkable 3.6% swing from Labour on the 5th of May - the largest in Bridgend since the Assembly was established - significantly larger than the 1.9% swing from Labour to Conservatives in Wales.