New YouGov Poll – Tories Back Up to 40%

There is a new YouGov poll published in tomorrow’s Sun newspaper showing Labour losing their lead as the Conservatives jump 2% to catch them up:

                   Conservative               40% (up 2%)

                   Labour                        40% (no change)

                                                    

                                                    Lib Dem                       10% (no change)

 

Changes shown are compared to the last daily YouGov poll I covered on 8 January.

Reading Conservative Councillors Unite Behind a New Leader

Reading Conservatives have elected their new Group officer team. Cllr Tim Harris was elected Leader unopposed. He was nominated by me and seconded by Cllr Jeanette Skeats.  Jeanette was re-elected unopposed as Deputy Leader; Cllr David Stevens was re-elected as Group Chairman and I was elected Whip.

Cllr Andrew Cumpsty announced that he would not be standing again as Leader in order that he could focus on new projects and his work as Deputy Chairman of the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership. Under Andrew’s leadership the Conservatives led a Conservative/LibDem coalition and Andrew was the first Conservative Leader of the Council for many years.

In his first speech to the Group as leader, Cllr Tim Harris paid tribute to Andrew Cumpsty’s time in control and announced his strategy for the Conservative Group in 2012/2013.

Cllr Tim Harris said ‘It has been a great honour to work with Andrew Cumpsty over the last 4 years. I am delighted to have been elected unopposed and am really pleased with the officer team. The energy, knowledge and innovation within the Conservative Group is awesome, so I will be working hard to fully embrace this for the benefit of the people of Reading. One thing from this meeting was absolutely clear; that the Conservative Group is united in our strategy to continue to set the local political agenda and to hold the minority Labour administration to account.’

Cllr Jeanette Skeats said ‘It has been a privilege working with Andrew as his deputy leader and as a member of the Coalition Cabinet. Under his leadership we achieved much for the people of Reading. I congratulate Tim on his election and look forward to working with him as his deputy.’

Tim is a great guy and together with Jeanette as deputy they form a very strong leadership team for the Group. Other parties will underestimate Tim at their peril!