UPDATED: Is Tory Candidate Paul Holmes Really "Local"?

Tory Candidate Paul Holmes Pretending He is Local

UPDATED (14th June 2017): We have passed more information to the Police and are awaiting an update from their investigation.

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No, he isn't. He is pretending.

Paul Holmes got selected for the seat, and is now pretending that he has been here for years.

He hasn't.

We have been speaking of "The Cons" by "The Cons" Party and the terrible Theresa May.

The day before polling day, we now turn our attention to the Tory candidate for Southampton Test, Paul Holmes.

The previous candidate for the past two elections was Jeremy Moulton. He was overlooked in favour of Paul Holmes. Why was this?

Was it because Jeremy Moulton lost twice to Alan Whitehead, in 2010 and by a bigger margin in 2015?

Was it because Jeremy Moulton, also Leader of the Conservative Group on the City Council, failed to lead the Conservatives to control the Council, despite Labour being in disarray?

Perhaps it was.

Or was it because Jeremy Moulton was not enough of a "yes man" for the Conservatives, and that as a political careerist working for the Tory Party Chairman Patrick McLoughlin, Paul Holmes was suitably malleable to be a "yes man" for Theresa May, as shown on the leaflet above.

Perhaps we shall never know for sure, as these are Conservative Party decisions.

A political careerist is someone who has politics as their career, and has never had a job outside politics.

The Labour Party and Conservative Party are full of them.

It appears that Paul Holmes has all the hallmarks of a political careerist. Careerists will do anything for their political career.

For example, they will produce tens of thousands of letters like the one above, desperately trying to persuade local residents that they are local and understand the local issues.

But how can Paul Holmes claim this, when he has been living and working in London?

And what about the attempts by Paul Holmes and the Tory Party to show he is local and to get him elected as Theresa May's man in Southampton?

Is Mr Holmes trying to con the people of Southampton into thinking he lives at the below address in Southampton, and lived there before he was selected as the Tory Candidate?

The address below is taken from the "Statement of Persons Nominated" issued by Southampton City Council.

Southampton Independents understands that Paul Holmes lived and worked in London, for the Conservative Party including the Party Chairman McLoughlin, and not in Southampton.

Mr Holmes did stand for Parliament. But for a London constituency in 2015, not Southampton.

Mr Holmes has taken this opportunity to try to cleanse his image as a Sotonian. Except it doesn't appear that he grew up in Southampton.

Paul Holmes studied at Southampton University and was a councillor for four years, but then left Southampton, to further his political career. That is the decision of a political careerist.

It appears that he hasn't been a Sotonian for many years.

His political opponent Andrew Pope has tried to get him to answer questions, but Mr Holmes has repeatedly evaded answering them.

Is Paul Holmes emulating Paul Nuttall of UKIP in the Stoke Central by-election?

When did he start living at this address?

If you look at the electoral register for Romsey and Southampton North, you can see that he is a late addition to the register.

Whose address is it really?

We have confirmed that it is the address of a former Southampton City Councillor. It must be some kind of favour, to help Mr Holmes cleanse his image and continue the pretense that he had been living in Southampton, prior to his selection as candidate.

Has he lied on his nomination papers?

We will see. That is a matter for the Police.

We have contacted local journalists and we hope they will do their duty in the public interest.

We will be passing information to the Police and asking for them to investigate.

And we ask Southampton residents to ask the same questions, BEFORE they cast their vote on Thursday 8th June, or on their postal ballot papers beforehand.

Do you trust Paul Holmes? Do you trust the Conservatives? Do you trust Labour?

Labour or Tory - it's a choice between potential disaster and proven failure. And Alan Whitehead has been a failure as your MP for 20 years. People know it's time for him to go.

We ask you to consider voting for Andrew Pope Southampton Independents, because he lives in the community, we are genuine and we are about the local area.

Southampton Schools: More Labour Lies

Labour's wilted rose

Southampton Independents know the history of the Labour Party and the unions.

The Labour Party and the unions were once honourable.

The Labour Party and the unions once stood up for working people.

The Labour Party and the unions fought for the rights of working people.

But they lost their way.

Southampton Independents are not anti-union. But we are against the unions not representing their members properly and deceiving members and the public about their motives.

The Labour Party and the unions are now frequently about sustaining the Labour Party and the unions. And not about what they are supposed to be.

The film Made in Dagenham shows how unions can behave very badly. The union officials in that film were about supporting themselves, not the members and not the women fighting for equal pay. That film was set in the early 1970s. Some of the unions haven't moved on since then.

You only need to look at the Southampton Fair Funding for All Schools (SFFAS) campaign to see how they have lost their way.

We have provided comment on this website and in the Daily Echo to show how parents feel misled by that campaign.

We have showed how the SFFAS poses as a parent-led campaign but is in fact a barely-concealed con.

It is a union and Labour campaign. They should be honest about that. Instead, they have drawn in parents by pretending they are something they are not.

When questioned by parents about the campaign's funding and who was behind it, at one of the public meetings, the SFFAS organisers withheld information about the fact that it is a union campaign and the fact that many of the parents at that meeting, and otherwise involved in the campaign, are also union activists.

Parents are going to be angry when they find out the truth.

And SFFAS is not politically neutral. It criticises the Tory Government, claiming that the Government claims are misleading, but it does not criticise the Labour Southampton City Council.

That is misleading. It is also not balanced.

The SFFAS campaign is another in a long line of Labour fronts.

They pretend to be for the people. Instead, they are about the Labour Party.

It is more Labour lies, used to deceive parents. That is unforgivable.

And this adds to the lies that the Labour council and Labour councillors about Southampton's bins. Year after year Labour councillors said they would "keep weekly bin collections".

Don't forget, in February 2017, they voted to make your bins collected fortnightly. They even tried to spin it as "Alternate Weekly Collections".

Labour lies to keep itself going, using its union-funded lie machine.

Labour put the party, not people, first.

We are publishing the truth about schools funding. 

And we will try to be balanced, as Southampton Independents always try to be.

Theresa May Cannot Be Trusted on Immigration or The Deficit

The Southampton Independents Parliamentary Candidate for MP in Southampton Test, Andrew Pope, says:

"Southampton Independents have already made clear what Southampton people think about Theresa May's repeated failure, over 7 years, to deal with the mass immigration that the last Labour Government started, and the Tory-LibDem Coalition and Tory governments failed to stop.

When we ask residents what Theresa May has achieved in Government over seven years, they normally cannot name a single thing. Sometimes they say that she has delivered Brexit.

Let us not forget, Theresa May campaigned for Remain.

Perhaps it is unsurprising then that it took NINE months for Brexit to be triggered after she and other MPs allowed the Referendum legislation to be deeply flawed.

Southampton has benefited from immigration for centuries.

But Southampton people do not like the SCALE of the immigration, and the SPEED of the immigration that has been unleashed by successive failing governments. And they do not like the IMPACTS that mass immigration has had on Southampton's communities and our public services.

So Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration.

She cannot be trusted on removing our national deficit either.

Labour delivered the financial crisis in 2008.

The Tories, with May in the Cabinet for seven years, used the financial crisis and the bailout of the banks as an excuse to cut public spending. They wanted to cut spending anyway. Labour's massive errors gave them the opportunity.

But the Tories have broken promises, time and time again, on removing the spending deficit. Both George Osborne and Phillip Hammond, both working with Theresa May, have pushed the target years back and now further back in the Tory Manifesto. And they have racked up more public debt because of this.

So the Tories under Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration or the deficit."

Please VOTE Andrew Pope Southampton Independents to be your next MP.

Andrew listens to you. Andrew works for you. Andrew stands up for you against Labour AND the Tories.

Soton Indies Official Party Emblem

Andrew Pope The ONLY Brexit Candidate for Southampton Test

The candidates are confirmed for the Southampton Test Constituency at the 2017 General Election.

Unlike all four other candidates for Southampton Test, Andrew listened to the views of Southampton residents. The majority of people wanted to leave the EU. 

So Andrew campaigned for Britain the leave the EU. And voted to leave the EU.

There is no UKIP candidate.

There is no Green candidate.

There is only ONE choice if you voted to leave the EU.

Andrew Pope, Southampton Independents.

Andrew Pope, the Southampton Independents Candidate, is the ONLY Candidate who campaigned in Southampton and for Southampton residents for a Brexit.

The Labour Candidate, Alan Whitehead, did not campaign for Brexit. Against the wishes of the majority of people in his constituency, he disgracefully voted AGAINST triggering Article 50.

The Conservative Candidate, Paul Holmes, wasn't even in Southampton because he was in London working for the Conservative Party instead of Southampton residents. He claims that he would "campaign tirelessly". But he didn't campaign during the EU referendum. Like millions of others, it appears that he only voted. How is that a campaign? It isn't.

And you know what the student Lib Dem Candidate thinks - the Lib Dems want us to Remain in the EU, despite the outcome of the vote.

The other so-called Independent who usually votes with Labour, old-style socialist Keith Morrell, did not campaign for Brexit. Let us be very clear, he is NOT with Southampton Independents.

Unlike all four other candidates for Southampton Test, Andrew listened to the views of Southampton residents. The majority of people wanted to leave the EU.

Unskilled workers, skilled workers, professional workers, young people, older people - they all told Andrew that they wanted to leave the EU.

One young Redbridge man in particular left a lasting effect on Andrew's view of the EU.

In 2015, he told Andrew:"What has Labour done for young people like me? They allowed mass immigration and I can't get a job. I'm voting UKIP."

Andrew was convinced by the views of the people he represents.

So as Andrew said in his speech in the Southampton City Council Chamber before the EU Referendum, Andrew felt duty-bound to represent their views as their elected representative for Redbridge ward on the City Council.

So Andrew campaigned for Southampton people to vote to leave the EU.

And Andrew represented their views on the doorsteps, on the streets, on Facebook and Twitter and in the Council Chamber.

He sent the letter below to the local paper, the Daily Echo.

Andrew worked with the Vote Leave campaign on the ground, speaking with people who wanted to vote to leave in the Redbridge ward that he represents.

Now, Andrew says:

"I was delighted with the EU Referendum result, although I was slightly surprised by it and might have woken up some of my neighbours by going outside and shouting "FREEDOM!" when the result was confirmed. I have apologised to them since!

The British people have spoken, but Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories don't seem to want to listen properly. In fact, many of them like Alan Whitehead want to ignore the British people.

I pledge if elected to Parliament to campaign for the Brexit that Southampton voted for - not the softest Brexit favoured by Theresa May and her local lackey Paul Holmes, or the chaos caused by Corbyn and his motley crew of MPs including Alan Whitehead.

Whitehead deserves to lose his seat in Parliament for deserting the views of the majority of his constituents.

Southampton needs an MP that respects their views and represents their views. 

Southampton wants a Brexit that means we work together for a positive future.

I have already worked for that Brexit and if elected, I will continue to work for that Brexit."

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Here’s the original version of Andrew Pope's letter that was printed in the Daily Echo on Friday 20th May 2016, mentioning why he urged everyone in Southampton to vote to leave the EU.

The people of the South East of England are smart. They’ve looked into it and worked out that the EU doesn’t benefit our Region. They’ve told me that it’s all take and no give by the EU.

Only two or three people out of hundreds we Independents recently spoke with in Millbrook, Maybush and Redbridge wanted to remain. The rest want to leave. It’s quite understandable.

Who can forget that without consulting with the public, the EU and corporation FORD conspired to kill thousands of jobs in and around the Southampton Ford plant where my uncle and thousands of local people worked? The EU actually gave over £80 million to TURKEY – a country not even in the European Union, to kill these thousands of jobs*.

In a time of Labour, Lib Dem and Tory cuts, the EU has conspired with Government and pro-EU parties to bring us disaster after disaster with further attacks on our port economy by EU rules and public money to Liverpool, the privatisation of Royal Mail, TTIP attacking our NHS and public services and putting even more pressure on schools, housing and health service.

I’ve got the proof from Council officers.

People have had enough.

These are just some of the reasons I will be voting, and campaigning, to leave the EU, and I urge the people of Southampton, Hampshire and the South East to do the same.

This EU referendum is about a positive future where Britain – not other countries – decides its own future.

A positive Britain that protects our jobs, grows our economy, controls immigration and sets its own destiny for a positive future – trading and co-operating with Europe but not in a political union that wants a European superstate that doesn’t let Britain work to its strengths.

Councillor Andrew Pope


* The European Investment Bank’s own website shows the Ford Transit project.