Ellie Reeves (MP candidate) - is she local?

What area does she live in Maja?

Am I right in thinking she lives in Bromley but just on the edge of the constituency!

Found it here via her husband, but not impressed how this has gone about & also how he went about this either.

Definitely not local to SE23 either of them, building up their political status I think rather than being part of our community.

I’ll be watching this!

I read in that article that they both live in the boundaries of Lewisham West and Penge

Check out the last paragraph Jason.

Plus how they seem to MOVE with the times!

It often has been the practice of those with Parliamentary ambitions to establish themselves in the constituencies of members approaching retirement. Ms. Reeves is clearly putting down the right kind of roots, for example launching her own local legal practice, Working Mums Advisory. On the other hand, choosing Bromley seems at first sight odd, because it is a prominent Tory stronghold. However, a few minutes research reveals some interesting facts. The Cryer-Reeves home may be geographically in Bromley, but for electoral purposes it sits in the Lewisham West and Penge constituency. The latter is currently held for Labour by Jim Dowd with a 12,700 majority.

And Mr. Dowd’s age?

I would love to see where they have lived during each election & other such things.

Her sister, Rachel Reeves, went to Cator Park School I think, so I think she counts as local enough.

As here on Wikipedia

Either she lives in the constituency or not. She does. She is the owner of a local business which appears to focus on securing and protecting the legal rights of working mothers. I commend her for this and respect the type of work she does. I gather her parents are from Lewisham and she was born in the area. Sounds like she’s coming home to me

If she had political aspirations for this seat down the road she would not have expected it until 2020 when her residency in the area would be 5 years. About the amount of time I gather John Russell lived in FH before he first won a political position.

I’m okay with calling her local.

@Pauline Lewisham West &Penge is a bit bigger area than SE23. You should know as you posted the map of the boundaries. Ellie grew up in the area and lives in the area now. I cannot see how anyone can accuse her as not being local enough.

There is also another dimension to all this. This election was not supposed to happen on the current boundaries. What has not been published yet is the final version of the boundaries review. Our constituency was carved up in the last draft. Therefore until the election was announced Jim’s retirement was slightly irrelevant as it was not creating a new space. We were gearing up to reorganise party structure on the new boundaries which in London meant a quarter of seats disappearing. (In rough terms)

All sounds a bit Royston Vasey to me. Compared with the mother-in-law’s similarly safe and comfortable (so long as you’re not a disgraced lying sleazebag) Tory constituency of Tatton that’s had candidates parachuted in from all over the place (Wales, Suffolk, London) I think someone born and brought up in Lewisham or very close neighbours is a definite plus.

I appreciate all posts here.

My point is do we have candidates that are local, or have moved to the area to BECOME local?

It’s in my nature to question important issues (probs because I can be a dumbo sometimes, but also because I genuinely like to ask questions if I don’t know the answer for definite) because I want others feedback.

So thanks for all the feedback here all, much appreciated.

I will question all if I don’t understand.

I wasn’t impressed by what I found after googling but others have shared other info which interests me & seems sensible.

On a side note LOL @Stephen I never take offence & your post made me chuckle so much.

Why is this important? Are you saying that someone should not be a candidate unless they were born on the area, or went to school in the area?

It’s important to me personally if someone lives local or not as local peeps tend to care more about the area they live in, and tend to be more passionate about local issues.

It doesn’t matter to me if they were born in the area or went to School in the area.

I tend to agree with @Pauline. I like the idea of a Government formed of one person from each constituency of the UK.

If it works, it better represents people of all areas, and also means that local people are given the opportunity to choose candidates they are able to meet in person locally.

Is anyone disputing that she lives in her prospective constituency? I am confused now.

Apparently living within the constituency but at its edge doesnt count. Nor does returning to her roots, opening a local business and supporting local people.

Surely that’s analogous to an anti-free market restriction on labour mobility, @anon5422159 !!! If the most ambitious and/or capable* politicians are able to achieve high office when their party gets elected to form a government, but they have no chance of being in the cabinet because they are from - and are still resident of - a constituency that would never vote for their party, what then? By this logic their party can’t just parachute them into a safe seat because they then wouldn’t be a ‘local’ MP.

• Obviously ambition and capability aren’t the same thing, hence ‘and/or’

Ah, but getting their constituency to vote for them is their job. If they’re capable politicians they should be able to move the dial.

I don’t think there’s any constituency that’s so tribal they’d only ever vote for one party.

Is SE23 really so enamoured with Labour that they’d continue to vote for Labour despite being led by Corbyn, and despite the Labour-led scandals on One Tree Hill, Millwall and Forest Hill School (PFI)?

Corbyn offers nothing except more class war, more debt and more government over-reliance on the financial markets.

Surely people realise by now that bribing voters with Wonga-fuelled spending is unsustainable?

£20 donation from me to Forest Hill library if this constituency votes for anything other than a Labour candidate in June. I say that as someone who voted tactically in 2015 to try to get rid of our MP. (Turns out it was an even more wasted vote than if I’d stuck to my voting record.) None of those objections you list will really matter a damn in whatever it is that our constituency is now called.

Let me ask a different question: which current Tory MP anywhere in the country do you think could (a) stand successfully in our area and (b) be worthy of high cabinet rank?

And let me ask one more question: is winning over the “tribal” instincts of a constituency a good use of time of a talented, capable politician who could be playing a leading role in running the country and affairs of state?

Good questions. I don’t have the answers. But Ellie Reeves won’t be getting my vote as long as she represents Corbyn’s Labour Party.

Given the Tories may now be hitting the successful with even more tax, I’m not sure they’ll be getting my vote either. I honestly don’t know who to vote for.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Which Tory MP anywhere in the country could stand successfully in SE23?

Well John Russell will be getting my vote for many reasons regardless that we have different opinions on brexit.

It was largely down to him that we have a pool in FH, also it was him that started the ball rolling with D Rd improvements when he was our local Cllr until 2010.

His tireless work (voluntary) for our community is endless & the work he does for Wide Horizons charity as the chair of the board of directors is inspirational.

I may be biased as he’s a good friend of mine, but I do know without a doubt he will bend over backwards to do the best he possibly can for our community

Also just for transparency John has stepped away from any decision making regarding the library (after we all discussed it as the Management Board) until after the election, though he will be kept informed of any decisions made - We (including John) thought this would be best to keep the library neutral of any political preference. And on that note the library will be a polling station

I’ll hold you to that donation Andy

My gut instinct tells me we may well be surprissed, we’ll have to wait & see

There’s never anyone in the Tory office but I will happily knock on the window just incase