Kemi Adegoke

It was an honour and a pleasure to be the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Dulwich & West Norwood and I cannot thank you all enough for your support. I just want to express my appreciation to the hundreds of people who did so much – donated money, organised a fundraiser, delivered a leaflet, stuffed an envelope, wrote a newsletter, or even just sent a supportive email.

No matter where I was, or what I was doing, I was never alone and felt like I was at the centre of a big and special family and I really couldn’t have survived the experience without Conservative Party Members and supporters, family and friends.

While we did not receive the result that we wanted, I am very grateful to the thousands of residents of Dulwich and West Norwood who voted for me. I was naturally disappointed not to win, but could not be prouder of the team that was behind me. If the election was decided on effort we would have won hands down. But we always knew it would be a tough fight here and � as we have seen all over London, so many seats that were expected to go blue simply didn’t even though they had more resources thrown at them by the national party.

I was particularly pleased to have received more votes than we did in 2005, but disappointed that like every other council in London, we lost seats and control to Labour. Looking at the hard work that our councillors have put in over the last 4 years, our opponents will have a very tough act to follow.

We said all along that governing the country was a race between Labour and the Conservatives. I think the result has shown that despite their claims and the huge surge they had following the televised debates, the Lib Dems can not win -not in Dulwich and West Norwood and not the country as a whole.

I hope that next time those wanting to unseat Labour will look to the Conservatives as the only viable alternative in this constituency.

I hope to write about my experiences as a parliamentary candidate, so please do check back soon for updates!

Best Wishes,

Kemi