In 2014, I was chosen by local Conservatives to stand to be the MP for Darlington in the 2015 General Election. I spoke at over a dozen public meetings and knocked on thousands of doors during the campaign, delivering the Conservative message across the whole town.
As a result:
● The Conservative vote share rose by five times as much in Darlington as it did nationally (3.7% compared to 0.8%) and the Labour majority fell.
● It was one of the best results in the country against a sitting Labour MP. Darlington saw the 24th biggest rise in the Conservative vote share across 258 Labour held seats – despite the bounce that a first term incumbent MP normally enjoys.
● I secured a 35.2% vote share. For the first time since the days of Michael Fallon, Darlington Conservatives performed about as well as the Conservatives did in the UK as a whole (36.9%).
“A Darlington man born and bred, he walks briskly from door to door in a cold, pelting rainstorm, listening to local concerns about parking garages, talking David Cameron up and Labour’s Ed Miliband down, and asking politely for support. Anywhere you go, retail politics are hard work, and it’s been a long day. As I flag, wondering if it would be bad form to suggest that we continue the campaign in a local pub, Cuthbertson breaks into a jog and heads for the next doorbell.” – Ted Bromund, reporting on the 2015 General Election for the American magazine National Review
Selected media coverage:
- Conservatives announce Parliamentary candidate for Darlington
- In Northern England, the Tories Look to Regain a Little Lost Ground
- North East politician criticises “soft justice” and calls for more criminals to be sent to prison
- Darlington is ‘easily winnable’ for the Tories in the General election says town’s former MP
- Labour MP and Tory challenger clash over prisons
- Darlington parliamentary candidates go head-to-head at hustings
- Election candidates quizzed on the arts in Darlington
- I don’t live in Wales – Darlington’s Jenny Chapman denies rumours at lively hustings event
- College students quiz Darlington’s Parliamentary candidates
- LGBT matters discussed by Darlington’s election candidates