James Wharton MP

This has been a hectic week, with a number of campaign activities including the latest newsletter being distributed and a visit from William Hague. We took William to Tesco in Ingleby Barwick to meet shoppers where there was an extremely positive response.

With less than a week to go people are now making up their minds, following David Camerons excellent showing in last night’s leaders debate things look pretty positive here in Stockton South.

David Cameron visited Stockton South yesterday to meet local residents in an hour long question and answer session. Stockton Sixth Form College kindly hosted the event and the audience was almost entirely made up of members of the public who are not affiliated to any particular political party.

At lunch time Eric Pickles, Chairman of the Conservative Party, visited Yarm to meet local activists and support our local campaign.  Eric even brought his own (mini) battle bus complete with “Vote for Change” logo!

Later I attended the Thrive (Church Action on Poverty) debate in Thornaby.  It was a well attended event with 3 of the other Stockton South Parliamentary candidates.  We discussed a wide range of issues, particularly challenges faced by those who find themselves living in poverty in our community and issues around immigration and asylum.

Thursday saw a number of debates and events, including the excellent BBC Tees debate between candidates from all three main parties in Stockton South on Thursday.  I also appeared on the ITV Tyne Tees coverage following the Leaders’ debate at around 11.45pm! 

We then spent Friday in Thornaby meeting local residents and this morning the team moved to Ingleby Barwick.  The response has been positive in every area, certainly if they are getting anything like the feedback we are Labour must be worried.