Two Conservative candidates for the upcoming local elections in Lincoln have resigned from the party less than two months before voters go to the ballot box.
Earlier this week, Seth Goddard, who was standing as the Conservative candidate for the Boultham ward, announced that he was resigning from the party.
Meanwhile, this morning, another Conservative candidate, Oliver Broadhurst, who was standing in the Park ward, announced that he too was resigning.
Lincoln has eleven electoral wards from which three councillors are selected to represent them at the City of Lincoln Council.
One councillor for each ward will be chosen at the elections on the 2nd May, under the council’s electoral process whereby it elects a third of its councillors every year apart from one year where voters choose representatives for the county council.
In an interview with The Linc, 19 year-old Seth Goddard, who is also a second-year politics student at the University of Lincoln, said: “I decided a couple of days ago that I could no longer reconcile my views with those of the Conservative party – I’m fundamentally not a Conservative anymore.
“My main issue at this current point in time is just how the party seems to refuse to take climate change seriously, to take the dying of our planet seriously.”
It marks a significant shift of opinion for Mr Goddard, who is still currently the President of the Conservative Society at the University of Lincoln and attended the Conservative Party Conference late last year.
He continued: “Locally, I have made many worthwhile friendships within the party, and I have no doubt that the spread of candidates up for election this year want what’s best for the city and its people, but I can’t count myself among them as a Conservative – I just can’t do that.”
Despite his resignation, Mr Goddard added that he has not given up on his political ambitions for the future.
He said: “I’m not disappearing, I’m not going to stop being politically involved.
“I’m not going to be a young, hair-gelled careerist sitting on the benches of some council soon but you know what, if I was doing that but to get there I had to skimp on some principles then I wouldn’t deserve to be in that position.”
The Lincoln Conservatives have been contacted for comment.