Home to roost

Well, this is truly remarkable Andy Carter is standing as Tory candidate for Warrington South after all. Who would have thought it?

You only have to go back to May last year when Mr Carter was saying so long, farewell and adieu to Warrington as he announced he wouldn’t be running for the seat again.

But maybe he should have said auf wiedersehen (goodbye for the present) because just like Slim Shady, he’s back.

But boy did Mr Carter really, really want to do a runner to anywhere but Warrington. Apparently he was given the go-ahead from Conservative HQ to do a ‘chicken run’ to a safer seat and he tried, he really tried, twice getting rejected by selection committees and reportedly once not even making the shortlist.

Far be it from me to suggest that grass root Tory activists were not enamoured with one of their own who sat in judgement on Boris Johnson so Mr Carter’s efforts were not so much a chicken run and more chickens coming home to roost. With time running out before the selection deadline and no safe seat in sight, to absolutely no one’s surprise up pops Mr Carter as the candidate for Warrington South.

Fair enough, I suppose. Desperate situations require desperate measures.

But despite all his protestations about how much he loves Warrington, the simple fact remains the voters of Warrington South were not his first choice, not his second choice and not even his third choice.

Yes, the voters of Warrington South are his fourth choice. That’s not a good pitch on the campaign trail.

One wonders whether even more chickens will be coming home to roost for Mr Carter on July 4.

KEITH MORRIS

Penketh

Chicken run

I READ with huge laughter that the one time South Warrington Tory MP, Mr Andy Carter has announced at the last minute that he his now once again standing as the Conservative candidate for Warrington South at the forthcoming General Election.

I know people change their minds but is he having a laugh?

Mr Carter announced a year ago that he was not standing again for re-election.

However as we all know he had a failed attempt to be selected five months later for a new safe Tory constituency in Suffolk, Waveney Valley, which is two hundred miles away.

According to the Guido Fawkes website, Mr Carter had two other Tory chicken run safe seats failed attempts, one in Andrew Bridgen’s North Leicestershire seat and one in Chester South and Eddisbury.

Now he wants the good people of South Warrington to vote him into parliament as their MP.

For me he is just a career politician who has done nothing for his constituency in his term of office.

TONY FOX

Stockton Heath