CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE: Laura Farris

Tory voted Remain but will back Brexit deal

NEWBURY’s Conservative candidate Laura Farris believes that “most people want to get on with Brexit” and says she hopes the first thing she will do if elected is vote for the Prime Minister’s deal.

Mrs Farris, a barrister specialising in employment and public law, is the daughter of former Newbury Conservative MP Michael McNair-Wilson, who served from 1974 to 1992. ​

She is currently vice-chair of the West Berkshire Conservatives and helped out in the local elections this year.

She says that as well as getting Brexit done, her priorities are focused mental health, education and protecting the environment.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, she said: “I voted Remain and I wanted to Remain, but I wholeheartedly support the PM in his deal.​

“I know that Newbury, by a narrow margin, was a Remain constituency, but I think people in Newbury accept the result and want to move on.​

“I think it is a fair statement to say that most people do not want to reopen wounds by having another referendum. ​

“I also do not think we should abandon Brexit as the Lib Dems are undemocratically proposing.​

“I do feel like I’m going into the second election in two years still having the same argument.​

“The last 12 months have been deeply disconcerting and reinforce why we need to get on with it.​

“I did not come into politics to spend the next 30 years, if I am lucky enough to get elected, talking about Brexit.​

“I hope, if I’m elected, my first vote will be to back the Prime Minister's deal.”​

She grew up in Bucklebury, while her father was MP, and was educated in Ascot, before attending the University of Oxford, where she read philosophy, politics and economics.

She came back to the area at the beginning of 2019 and currently lives “north of Newbury” with her husband and two children.​

Speaking about her father, she said: “My dad died when I was 14 and he had just retired as an MP. ​

“I remember we always used to talk about politics around the kitchen table – it was a big part of our life growing up.​

“I don’t want to give people the impression that, just because my father was an MP, I think it is my right to follow.

“I might be ‘the former MP’s daughter’, but I have a strong local link and love the area. ​

“I have lived here and I think I have got a really good grasp of issues on the ground.

“I think I am someone who will enhance Newbury in Parliament.​

“I am a young mum raising a family, living a normal life.

“I hope I can speak in an authentic voice.​

“I hope to represent the people of Newbury in a robust and articulate way.​”

Speaking about her selection as the Conservative Party’s candidate, she said: “I am over the moon, my feet have not quite touched the ground.

“It is a strange feeling and I can’t quite believe it.”

She also stood as a Parliamentary candidate in Leyton and Wanstead (East London) in the 2017 General Election.