From Claire’s facebook post

I am really happy to announce that I am backing Paul Arnott to take Exmouth and Exeter East in the general election!

For those of you not familiar with Paul, he is the Liberal Democrat leader of East Devon District Council, presiding over a rainbow coalition of LibDem, Independent and Green councillors, after taking the helm back in 2020.

I first met Paul Arnott back in 2009 in the sitting room of the dear late Broadclyst LibDem councillor, Derek Button. 

It was the first meeting of a small group of worried politically active people that included Cllr Roger Giles and Jonathan Underwood, who was a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in 2010. 

At the time Paul was being persecuted by the then Conservative run East Devon District Council, for asking difficult questions about planning matters.

Anyone who remembers those days, will recall the absolute steamroller that it was, flattening any dissent or challenge and hauling unfortunate opponents before standards hearings for minor misdemeanours, while perpetrators of actual planning atrocities got off scot free.

They were dark days but myself, Paul and our group were absolutely determined to change things.  And so we did. 

The investigation of some murky planning matters led to the creation of Communities Before Developers on 2010, a campaign group I led that repeatedly challenged EDDC’s proposals to throw out much of the countryside protections in its new draft local plan

Having a shared cause, Paul and I remained friends. After I was elected to EDDC as an Independent in 2011, Communities Before Developers fizzled out as I had a vote and a more powerful platform. But we had sown the seeds of something much bigger…

The following few years were probably the most febrile time in EDDC’s history and the council was shaken to its core in 2013 when its conservative deputy leader, Graham Brown, was outed in a Daily Telegraph sting operation, which was splashed across its front page.  His long political tenure was finally over and the event marked the beginning of the end for the East Devon Conservatives’ lengthy and stultifying reign of power.

In 2015, with Paul firmly at its centre, the East Devon Alliance was birthed and immediately set about fielding a raft of Independent candidates from across the constituency to the EDDC elections of that year, which overthrew many Conservative councillors.

Some were so outraged at losing their seats that they wrote furious letters to the local papers about this terrible injustice!

It was an exciting ground-breaking time and I loved being a slightly detached part of the team (I had my own battles).

In 2019, the East Devon Tory steamroller squashed its last dissenter, as the East Devon Alliance with its rainbow coalition took control of the council and the Conservatives were reduced to a rump of 16.  

The old rotten regime had finally been replaced by something inspiring, decent and wholesome, run by people who wanted to do something positive.  People who I indentified with and loved spending time with. I was excited beyond words.

So … who is Paul?  The Paul that I know is decent, hard-working, tough, but also incredibly compassionate. He has a laser-like focus and will leave no stone unturned when justice is at stake.

He is a great dad to four adult children and has a lovely wife, Lydia.

And today, fifteen years after I first met Paul and instantly knew I had found one of my tribe, the hilariously witty, determined, fiercely intelligent, light-seeking missile that he is, has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the new constituency of Exmouth and Exeter East.

He would make a strong and wonderful MP but he needs your support to win!

So if you live in the soon-to-be-formed constituency of Exmouth and Exeter East (includes Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Cranbrook, Pinhoe and a chunk of Eastern Exeter) and would like to help with Paul’s campaign, either by leafleting, finance or in some other way, please email Todd Olive at libdemtodd@gmail.com

Thank you so much!