John Hemming backs Sir Menzies after the West Midlands hustings

5.28.02pm GMT Sun 19th Feb 2006

John Hemming has decided to back Sir Menzies Campbell. John had written earlier in the week that he was still to decided on who to back and was going to decide after the West Midlands hustings. Below are his reason as posted under his blog entitled "Hemming endorses Campbell"

The West Midlands Hustings for Lib Dem Leader were yesterday. I would be happy if any of the three candidates won. However, in a finally balanced decision I have decided to endorse Ming Campbell.

There were two particular parts of his speech which were clearly distinct from the other two candidates.

Firstly, he made it clear that we should be a campaigning party raising issues from a local to national level.

Secondly, he talked about the 1.6 Million families waiting for housing and the 700,000 empty homes.

Compared to Chris Huhne, Ming was clearer about the need to be sensitive in the way in which resource taxation is applied. People will know that I see the practical limits to resource consumption being the availability of resources. Within the context of that debate how one rations out the availability of resources becomes a complex decision that needs to be thought through carefully.

We are not clones of the leader of the party. Party policy will continue to be determined by the party as whole. Another point Ming made was the need to involve more people in this so that the party becomes more interested in politics.

Having consulted within the Birmingham Party, therefore, I have decided to vote for and endorse Menzies Campbell as Leader of the Liberal Democrats.