Thank you to the South West Wiltshire Lib Dem members, supporters and voters

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for working so hard to help the Lib Dems and I campaign in the recent General Election.

Although we didn't get over the line in South West Wiltshire this time, we made gains on previous general elections, increasing our vote share by 4.8% above the national Lib Dem trend of 4%. This builds on the credible track record that we've set in South West Wiltshire over the past 12-18 months

In 2019 Liberal Democrats in South West Wiltshire have

• 3 Lib Dem Unitary Councillors elected in by-elections
• 2 Lib Dem Town Councillors elected in by-elections, Lib Dems took control of Trowbridge Town Council this year
• South West Wiltshire now has 6 Lib Dem Unitary Councillors.
• Lib Dems are the official opposition to Conservative-led Wiltshire council

None of this would have been possible without the hard work of all our volunteers. I am grateful to everyone who gave up their time, energy and money to help over the last few months.

We stood up for a United Kingdom that is internationalist, open and inclusive - whilst showing that Lib Dems work for communities locally and I am so proud of what our team achieved.

However, there's no doubt that the national result was disheartening. A number of fantastic MPs lost their seats, including our leader Jo Swinson. On top of this, so many of our hardworking and talented candidates came painfully close to winning. Their progressive and fair voices will be much missed from Parliament.

So while it's important that we take time to rest and reflect upon the lessons we can learn from this election; we cannot afford to give up. Our town, and country, needs us now more than ever.

I've spent the last three and half years working on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, standing up for the principles of social justice, fairness, the NHS and social care, electoral reform and Britains place in the European Union amongst others and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

The Conservatives have made a lot of promises during the election, and we will hold them to account on those. We will call out if we see no extra police, or no extra nurses, if local government receives no extra funding, or if climate change is ignored. We will speak out to uphold our rights and those of our European friends.

I hope you'll join me in this fight. Because it's only by working as a team that we'll be able to build a brighter future for South West Wiltshire and for the UK.

Thank you again.

Best wishes,

Ellen Nicholson

Lib Dem Candidate for South West Wiltshire