Runcorn by-election – candidate for the chop?
There are rumours circulating among Reform members in the constituency that Jason Moorcroft who stood last time as the Reform candidate, might be replaced. He’s a local councillor for Frodsham, one of the towns in the constituency and a nice enough bloke. Jason has had a few business upsets along the way, he’s been quite candid about that and last I heard he is now working as a driving instructor. Nothing untoward there. No the problem is something else.
The chat around Reform members locally is that the pressures of a high visibility by election campaign would be just too much for Jason to handle. One foot wrong and the media will eat Reform for breakfast.
Unfortunately for Jason he had a bit of a botch-up with the media, managing to brass off GB News who were initially sympathetic. It started off okay when he did an interview GB News’ Patrick Christys back in February. Jason called on the Conservatives to step aside to allow Reform a clear run and said “”If I was being pessimistic, I would say we’re neck and neck.” That is fair enough, but calling for the Conservatives to step aside might not have impressed Reform Head Office. Why’s that you might ask? Very simply because we are telling Labour voters in Runcorn we are not the Tories. Labour voters. Who we need in Runcorn, are possibly not going to be persuaded to vote Reform if they think it’s just a Reform/Tory mish-mash.
Putting that aside, there is a more convincing argument for a different candidate (sorry Jason). That is the disaster of an interview he had with GB News presenter, Ben Leo last week (March 11). Ben Leo was basically well-cheesed off with Moorcroft and gave him a hard time. It was described by the Express as “a brutal grilling.” The GB News presenter had a go at Jason over the row about Rupert Lowe, but really it had nothing to do with rows or policy and the truth spilled out during the interview.
The simple fact was it had become personal for Ben Leo because Jason had allegedly refused to meet-up with him. Apparently Ben Leo had travelled up to Runcorn (a five hour train journey) to do a pro-Reform piece on the constituency. He told Jason,
“I thought it extraordinary for a party and a candidate that came second that you couldn’t spare the time to meet me. I spent five hours on the train.”
To be fair, I think Ben had a point.
Jason said he couldn’t make it because he was at work and had other commitments. That was regarded as unfortunate by many of us locally in Reform and I can imagine what Reform Head Office thought.
It’s common sense you have to make the most of positive media interest. This was a golden opportunity to establish a positive personal relationship and the opposite happened.
I get that Jason might have been busy with driving school commitments, but this was a national TV station making the effort to come and see us. You can rearrange driving lessons surely?
To be honest we need a Reform candidate that can make the time and understands the consequences might be bad otherwise. This is a by-election and the demands on a candidate will be intense and requires a savvy candidate. Maybe Jason can up his game, but there’s no room for own goals here if we are to win. Don’t be surprised if that’s what ReformHead Office conclude, we’ll have to wait and see.
