Sponsored by
High-profile Tory star sets sights on the top job
Liberal Democrats in Yorkshire have set their sights on a spectacular coup: taking Haltemprice and Howden in East Yorkshire and keeping out Shadow Home Secretary David Davis. Political Editor Simon McGee spent the day with him.
IT is often said that David Davis is the Tory whom Labour fears most, and it's easy to see why.
For starters, there's his single-parent upbringing on a council estate, and education at a state school followed by a degree from a redbrick university – a background that totally confuses Labour's class-orientated view of the world. It has doubtless helped equipped him to come across to people beyond the Westminster bubble as "normal". Which he does.
It is combined with extensive experience and a blunt, pragmatic view of politics, so all eyes are on Davis to make a bid for party leader when the ageing Michael Howard steps down.
That is, of course, if he keeps his seat.
Four years ago he realised he had to adjust his gameplan when young Liberal Democrat hopeful Jon Neal slashed his majority to just 1,903 votes.
This election he has been doing his "national" job as party spokesman on crime and immigration in the morning, while spending every afternoon in the East Riding campaigning for every crucial vote.
Sitting in a pub in the shadow of Howden's once-glorious minster, Davis gives a confident exposition on why he'll be returned this time.
The 2001 result, he says, happened because the seat fell foul of what he called "the classic Liberal Democrat attack pattern" –strong individuals building on the party's strength in local politics.
He adds that he selflessly lent half of his footsoldiers to candidates fighting top Tory targets Selby and Colne Valley, suggesting that he was more than a little complacent about what turned out to be a far closer result in his own Haltemprice and Howden constituency than anyone predicted.
But if he took last time's result just a little for granted, the record of the past couple of years is that he hasn't repeated that mistake.
Despite what he refers to as "an unremitting black propaganda campaign" by opponents, including a website about him with clearly abusive content, he believes his work in the constituency as well as his national role as Shadow Home Secretary will see him returned to the Commons.
"It's the combination of a high profile, a large number of local campaigns and also quite a large number of my cases being in the public domain," he says, pretty confidently.
The icing on the cake of his achievements, as he puts it, is his part, and the wide acknowledgement of it, in saving the British Aerospace factory at Brough and its 2,000 workers.
As half of them and their families live in Haltemprice and Howden, he's hopeful that this, alongside other well-publicised local work, has created a "drip, drip, drip thing that enters the public's mind".
Local research he commissioned earlier this year gave him "a 14-15 point premium over the natural Tory vote" because of his personal profile.
Modesty – a word used rarely in connection with any politician, particularly during an election campaign – isn't something that troubles Davis.
And the national prospect?
"I never make predictions on these things. But the last two were over before they started. This one isn't over till it's over."
Interrupting a question on leadership ambitions, he answers with what has become his standard response: "I'm playing this game to win this particular election," he says with a smile, giving little away other than the fact that he doesn't want to talk about it precisely because he wants to lead his party.
Walking back into the sunshine, it seems Davis believes he's already conquered this particular peak.
And if he does get back into Westminster, there's also no question which one he'll be eyeing next.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
