(Interview conducted on December 9)
What made you decide to leave the party?
I have predicted that the government would bring in these measures for quite a while now. When plan B was announced by Boris, I realised this was the point that I had to just say goodbye. Too much hypocrisy in the party, rules are being broken by ministers and Boris, and his staff, and his wife. I’m just going by reports that I’ve seen by the media outlets. All I know is that people in this country have suffered under these measures. They’ve not been able to see their own family members. The government had a party and then to distract us, they then say that, okay, we’re now going to go back to lockdown measures, for a virus that hasn’t killed anyone yet. And I’m talking about Omicron specifically there.
What do you think about the claims that some people may make that it is a preventative measure?
I don’t believe that you can prevent it. I mean, the flu kills people every year, we don’t shut down the country for flu. More people have probably died from the flu than the Coronavirus. There are some people who may say that lockdown has helped prevent that, but you’ve seen in other countries, where countries are in full lockdown and the virus is still spreading. You cant stop the virus from being a virus. And I think that, it’s obvious, there’s evidence to back up what I’ saying. So to encroach on peoples’ civil liberties is tyrannical. To say to people, if you go the pub, you need to have an injection and then prove it. That’s not fair, on anyone, because I’m double vaccinated, I supported the measures, for the most part, at least the first half of the pandemic, I supported 100%. So I’ve had my jabs. If I was to go to a venue right now, with the covid pass, I could still have coronavirus in my system, and pass it on unknown. Now another person, may also be double vaccinated, and they might catch the virus, but take it home. Now you don’t necessarily know, who they’re going home too, which therefore makes it negligible, the protection against the virus is now negligible because the person may not have their vaccine. Again, if you have had vaccine, the antibodies in your system are far greater at protecting you than the injection will be, but if you haven’t had your jab, despite having greater natural protection, you’ll still be not allowed in places. That for me is discrimination, and when you break it down in the way I have, you cant justify it in my view.
What do you think the party needs to do, to get back your support or just move forward?
I think that the party is at a place where they wont bounce back to where they were when they won the huge 80 seat majority. I think that’s gonna affect local elections moving forward with the way the recent scandal has been handled. I mean, I do genuinely believe that number 10 Downing Street party and the announcement of these measures are a distraction tactic to take away from the fact, that last Christmas, when families up and down the country were already prevented from seeing their grandparents, some unfortunately lost family members during that period of time. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s shameful that the government are able to get away with that, and be like, you know what, yeah we had a party, but guess what, new lockdown measures. Its not cool.
Do you think that therefore, Basildon Council is drastically under risk?
Basildon as a borough is a bit of a flip flop town. So, if you look at the election history of the borough, it tends to go between Labour and the Conservatives, every year, every couple of years, so I would say that this puts them in a bit of a bad position for next years prospects, yeah, are bad I would say.
Is Boris’s position untenable, and who would you like to see replace him?
I do believe his position is untenable, but I don’t care for who should take over, because I don’t really believe that anyone will come in and do anything different. I think that the people who are already front runners, are probably going to be the same people running the country right now…
…Could you not see a backbencher come through the fray in a similar way Corbyn did for Labour in 2015?
I don’t know, if I’m honest, I don’t know.
What are you going to do in the future, is there any other parties you could get involved in?
I haven’t really made any political decisions for the future. All I know is the reason for my resignation was mainly because I think its morally justified to take a stand on this and to actually speak up for people who feel the same way that I do, and there are millions of people who feel exactly the same way as I do and no one in Parliament, and no one in their local…no one has the real gumption to go and say, we do not believe in this. Nobody’s doing that and its shameful really. I’ve used that word once already, but it is really shameful that you have members of Parliament that can obviously see the things that I can see, and are choosing to look another way because the party wants them too. Thats why I’ve had people in my party try to talk me out of being so openly vocal about how the governments are handling this pandemic. Because, they are not necessarily bothered about my opinions, they are bothered about how my opinion might make the rest of them look. And I would say that, their alone if they think thatIi’m the only one who feels this way.
Is that in part because of the divided nature of the leadership within the Basildon Conservative or is this more towards the central office impact on the Council?
Id say it comes twofold. I think that people obviously want to protect their reputation, and the integrity of the Conservative party. Even when, it’s sometimes hard to do. Especially now. I don’t think there’s any issues in the Basildon Conservative party regarding leadership, as you will find in a group of people big or small, opinions sometimes differ. But I think that everyone has the same ideals, everyone has the same aims.