Former Eastbourne MP’s ambiguity lost him votes

Our former MP, Stephen Lloyd, has said that Brexit was the reason he lost at the most recent General Election.

It should be remembered that he won – in 2017 – when Brexit hadn’t been delivered, so I’m not convinced that this was the determining factor.

I think, more pertinently, Stephen lost this time because of his moral ambiguity over Brexit managed to alienate all sides of the debate.

If you were a staunch Brexiteer, you wouldn’t trust him to deliver it after he voted against all but a couple of Brexit-related bills, and then said that he wouldn’t vote for it anymore.

If you were a firm Remainer, you couldn’t really trust him to hold to his position after you’d witnessed him so casually cast his principles to one side in order to get elected in 2017.

And if you just wanted the whole affair to be sorted, like I imagine most people in the town felt, you couldn’t believe that he would bring about that conclusion with such a convoluted and contradictory record on the matter.

In a sense, therefore, Stephen was right to say that Brexit was the reason he lost.

But it was only the reason in so much as his own actions and lack of integrity over it caused it to be.