Meet the Lib Dem candidate who admits that his party are fence-sitters

Martin Turner (pictured) is unlikely to be finding himself sitting on the green benches of the Commons any time soon. He is the Liberal Democrat candidate in Stratford-on-Avon, where the excellent Nadhim Zahawi was recently selected as Conservative candidate in the place of retiring MP, John Maples.

The notional figures suggest Turner is starting nearly 11,000 votes behind the Conservatives, but he was out on parade for a hustings at Statford-on-Avon College last week along with the candidates from the Conservative, Labour, Green and UK Independence parties.

He generously opened his initial statement in the hustings (12 minutes and 55 seconds into the video below) by saying "Well said - I thought that was inspiring" in direct response to Nadhim Zahawi.

But his political judgement had completely escaped him (or perhaps he was just being unusually candid for a Lib Dem politician) by the time he came to reply to the question about whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were necessary. Following on from the other candidates, he opined (51 minutes into the video):

"I kind of agree with all the points of view, which is why I'm a Lib Dem. Give us a fence and we'll sit on it."

Jonathan Isaby