ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

How Aidan Burley won Cannock Chase on a swing of more than 14%

One of the most memorable results at this year's general election was that in Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, where a supposed Labour stronghold was gained by Aidan Burley for the Conservatives.

Aidan’s 14.02% swing, called in to me by Peter Botting at 4.21am on May 7th as the result was being declared at Cannock Leisure Centre, was called a "staggering result" by the BBC - and was the largest swing of any Conservative candidate to gain a seat from Labour.

Aidan turned a notional 9,227 Labour majority into a Conservative majority of 3,195 – making him one of the youngest of the new intake of Tory MPs, aged 31. 

Born in New Zealand to British parents, his family returned to the UK several months later and he was brought up and educated in Birmingham. He won the mock election at King Edward’s School, Edgbaston, for the Conservatives in 1997 and later helped run OUCA and the Union whilst he was studying at St John’s College, Oxford.

He went on to work with the Home Office and the NHS as a management consultant, and also worked for Philip Hammond and Nick Herbert when they were shadow ministers. He was also a Conservative Councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham, but stood down from his seat to concentrate on winning Cannock Chase.

He explains here how he managed that feat:

"I had an agent, the former candidate - Ian Collard, who believed in me and in victory from the beginning and I had an incredibly stubborn and demanding coach in Peter Botting who kept on pushing me and pushing me.

"At target seat position No. 198, and not even on the radar of Target Seat Funding, we were totally left to our own devices in terms of fundraising. We also have a relatively small association of modest means. So we raised our own money - lots of it - through events, auctions and donations. It was hard work and we spent everything we raised. This became easier after we were able to evidence momentum. The fundraising was arguably harder than the campaign.

"We had great literature, put together by Stephen Ion and written by a strident committee of 3 (Ian, Peter and myself, and approved by my girlfriend Helen – who looked at it from an ‘external’ i.e. non-political perspective!) that debated every word, picture, colour and layout.

Rolling blog recording David Cameron's campaign visits

Of course all members of the shadow cabinet will be travelling the length and breadth of the country during the campaign, but there will doubtless be particular interest in the constituencies which David Cameron visits. This will be a record of those visits (N.B. Target numbers are based on the figures of the notional majorities calculated by Profs Rallings and Thrasher at the University of Plymouth).

Wednesday 5th May
Mr Cameron campaigned through the night, meeting night shift workers at WEC Engineering’s base in Rossendale and Darwen (Target 77), another visit to Ed Balls' Morley and Outwood seat (Target 196), where he went to a Morrisons supermarket distribution centre. By dawn he was with fishermen in the fishing port of Great Grimsby (Target 214). Then it was on to Nottinghamshire, visiting the Sir John Sherbrooke Junior School in Calverton in the Sherwood constituency (Target 152). By lunchtime he had travelled across to the West MIdlands to visit an ambulance station in Dudley North (Target 106). It was then on to Wales, where he paid a mid-afternoon visit to a school, Ysgol Daffyd Llwyd, in Montgomeryshire (Target 210) - meaning he has visited all four constituent parts of the UK in the last 24 hours. It was then on to Bristol for a final campaign rally (pictured) at Brunel's Old Station in the Bristol West consituency, whcih borders more marginal Bristol North West (Target 54) and Bristol East (Target 170).

Tuesday 4th May
The day began with campaigning in Hendon (Target 73) for Matthew Offord, after which Mr Cameron flew to Northern Ireland to speak at a rally in Strangford, County Down. It is the seat that was held by Iris Robinson in the last Parliament for the DUP, but is being contested by Mike Nesbitt for the Conservaitves and Unionists at this election. It was then back in the air to travel to a rally in Renfrewshire East (Target 138) to support Richard Cook. He then travelled down the motorway to Carlisle (Target 132) where he visited night shift workers at the Carlisle Fire and Rescue station (pictured).

Monday 3rd May
A bank holiday, but a busy day for David Cameron, which started at the Chepstow Community Garden in Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Target 79) with local candidate Paul Maynard. He then went back to London where he visited the City of London Academy in the Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency with Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Hugh Robertson and sports stars Gavin Hastings and James Cracknell to promote an Olympics-style school sports competition. He then addressed the Citizens UK Assembly in Westminster before being interviewed for Sky News by Adam Boulton - after which he addressed a rally in Feltham in the Feltham and Heston seat (Target 182) where Mark Bowen is the Tory candidate.

Sunday 2nd May
After being interviewed by Andrew Marr, David Cameron headed for Cornwall, where he addressed a rally of supporters in Newquay in the new St Austell and Newquay (Target 119) constituency being contested by Caroline Righton. He then went up to North Wales where he went campaigning at a Tesco store in Holywell in Delyn (Target 186) with local candidate Antoinette Sandbach.

Saturday 1st May
The first visit of the day was to the Lister General Hospital in Stevenage (Target 72) with candidate Stephen McPartland. He then spent some time campaigning in Woodstock in his own Witney constituency before going to Dagenham and Rainham (Target 151)  where he visited the Rush Green Medical Centre before addressing a party rally with locsal candidate Simon Jones.

Poor health forces Tony Wright MP to step down at next election

Aidan Burley was recently selected as our candidate for Cannock Chase.

Aidan Burley selected for Cannock Chase

Aidan Burley, a management consultant and councillor in Hammersmith & Fulham, was selected as the candidate for Cannock Chase yesterday.

Labour's Tony Wright MP has a notional majority of 8500.