Vote for local Tory candidate or spoil vote?

[popsicles2342]

Please can you explain how it works. Looks like the only decent candidate in my area is a Tory. Happens that she's a woman who understands sex-based rights. Labour didn't bother replying and Lib-dem spouted nonsense saying he understood the issue about single sex spaces but also that sex is not binary!

If I vote for the Tory candidate and she wins, will that 1. effectively keep her in (sounds good to me) 2. but also help keep Tories in power (not what I want)

Assuming Labour win, then won't it be ok to at least have a few Tory candidates that fight for sex-based rights? Or does it not work like that? I don't really understand how it all works!

@Barleycat exactly. My biggest priority is that the tories (and reform) do not win. Everything else can be worked on later. I compare my life as a working single mum under labour to my current life as a working single mum under the tories and it's a no brainer. There will be many others who are being crippled by lack of childcare, universal credit etc. There is now talk of closing down paediatrics at our local hospital and sending sick children out of town. This is the kind of issue affecting (mostly) women that I see all around me that needs fixing. No party is ideal at the moment, they all have more issues than a hachette partwork but getting the current shower back for another go is unthinkable.

Exactly where I am. I want Labour to win, to fix public services and restore faith in politicians, but I want there to be a strong opposition to hold them in check esp re women's safe spaces.
In the debate last night Starmer did say he agrees with safe spaces "for women, biological women" (which makes him a TERF lol) so I want a strong opposition to ensure he follows through on this.

As opposed to Labour who have the destruction of women’s rights as one of their priorities?

One thing to understand is that it is multi issue.

So can we credit Sunak for bringing up the issue in the last few months (against the TRAs in his own party, even if it's just for election purposes)? Which means it's the leader, not the party that's important?

So if Tories get power, but Sunak gone, then hope for opposition against Self-ID etc will vanish.

My ideal scenario would be Labour in (I previously voted Green but they're bonkers now), but with a GC leader, Starmer out. What are the chances of that happening? (Not much I guess)

Hell, this feels more like a betting game than anything else

In the debate last night Starmer did say he agrees with safe spaces

Note he said ‘safe spaces’ NOT single sex spaces. Women’s need to privacy and dignity do not count and he thinks mixed sex spaces are ‘safe’ spaces.

It isn’t in the last few months.
And one of the Conservatives who most understands the issues on an intellectual level is Kemi Badenoch.

So if Tories get power, but Sunak gone, then hope for opposition against Self-ID etc will vanish.

No way. The Conservatives have learned their lesson on this (IMO). They'll go even stronger against gender ideology especially if Kemi Badenoch becomes leader, which is a strong possibility.

So can we credit Sunak for bringing up the issue in the last few months

Tories were the only party to vote against the GRR Bill in 2022 and the Hate Crimes Bill in Scotland in 2021. It was the Tories who stopped the GRR Bill. They commissioned the Cass review in 2020 and backed its recommendations.

However, they also have a few TWAW crazies so watch your candidate. If you have a good Tory candidate then vote for him or her.

Only Thatcher was actually elected PM - who did nothing to help women

May was chosen by the Tories as the compromise candidate to succeed Cameron owing to the factional Brexit squabbling because she was tough on immigrants

Truss was chosen by the Tories amid the Boris Johnson scandal for her promises to follow a right wing agenda of cutting taxes, reducing welfare services and reducing regulation - she favoured abolishing the Human Rights Act,

Tories aren't going to fight for the rights of anyone unless they're employers, landlords or corporations.

Maybe the next biggest party, to try to get a hung parliament, to balance Labour’s power.

A hung parliament would be awful - it hands too much power to parties very few people voted for. Just look at what happened with the Greens in Scotland.

Why do you think that? I don't think there is any reason to think they'd take a different approach without Sunak.

I’m less certain the tories will lose tbh. What happens if they do win and we’re taken out of the ECHR ?
Law of unintended consequences and all that ?

If you want a Conservative government vote for a Tory.

That’s how it works. It’s not a protest vote.

God no. Last thing we need is a Lib Dem tail wagging the Labour Dog.

I was sure that Starmer said ‘separate’ spaces, not ‘safe’ spaces, in the debate. But it doesn’t matter because he then went on to weaponise the death of Brianna Ghey in a way that was simply crass and opportunistic and sounded like confected outrage.

No one except Streeting on Labour’s front bench seems to have understood the issues, or to have the courage to address them and stand up for women’s hard-won rights to privacy, dignity, safety, language and sports.

The LibDems are wholly captured on gender issues.

No, how it works is if you choose the local candidate who best fits your views and represent them in parliament.

I'm always torn in 2. I too have a tory who is a good constituency MP (I asked a few people what they think because I'm an overseas voter)

But in the end i couldn't do it. I had hoped for an Indy or a communist but there were only the main 4. so i held my nose and voted Labour - at least they live in the constituency)

I don't think it is a bad thing to vote for a good local MP.

I’m voting Conservative, yes I think they are (beyond) awful but it’s a Tory/Lib Dem contest locally and I’d prefer aTory opposition to Lib Dem.

If everyone votes Tory, which they seem to be doing here, then the Tories will get back in.

We will both be voting conservative in this household for many of the reasons listed. Not that I’m impressed with them but I would rather them as the opposition and we are/were in a safe conservative seat

I am sure MN will be pleased that you have so much confidence in their reach.