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| Ben Burcombe-Filer Conservative Party Candidate for Southampton Test at the 2024 General Election Photo: B Burcombe-Filer |
When we asked Ben Burcombe-Filer, the Conservative Candidate for Southampton Test at the 2024 General Election, what track record he has of winning campaigns, he told us:
"I was written off at 18 months old, and ever since I have been told I cannot do this, or will not be able to do that. So I have been campaigning for almost my entire life, and that fact that I am writing this as Candidate for Southampton Test is purely down to the fact I win my campaigns."
This combative response from Mr Burcombe-Filer was matched in his response to being asked why he is standing in the General Election. He said:
"I am standing in this election because Southampton Test deserves a choice. Currently 75% of its councilors are Labour, with the potential of a Labour MP and Keir Starmer in number 10, all checks and balances are effectively removed.
You only have to look at Labours track record to see why this is bad news for the people of Southampton Test. The council needs to save 40m annually in a desperate attempt to stave off a section 114, something which will inevitably lead eyewatering council tax rises and cuts to services that will hammer the people the council is supposed to serve! They have not even begun trying to balance the books, because they fear reprisals at the ballot box next month.
How can they be trusted to put the people of Southampton or indeed the country first?"
The Conservative candidate in the West of Southampton is no stranger to standing in elections, having stood for Eastleigh Borough Council and Hampshire County Council over several years. He succeeded in being elected to Bishopstoke Parish Council at the May 2024 local elections, but was not elected to the other two councils.
Mr Burcombe-Filer has appeared in various media, as a private tutor and as a fund-raiser for those living with disabilities and for disability rights.
A Sky Living TV documentary in 2015 featured Mr Burcombe-Filer, titled “What the Super Tutor Saw”. Mr Burcombe-Filer has cerebral palsy, with the Southern Daily Echo saying then that he “suspects” this contributed to his struggling in getting work before leading to the private tutoring.
Presumably this also inspired his comments about "winning campaigns" too.
He was also quoted by the Southern Daily Echo as having “tutored children of Lords, sports stars and super-rich business leaders”. Speaking about his work, into which he “fell” after graduating from Cambridge University, he says that he loves the work.
Inews reported in 2021 that Mr Burcombe-Filer “hopes to become a Tory MP”. Realising his ambition now, this 2024 General Election is the first time that he has stood for Parliament.
Why Southampton Independents Is Covering the 2024 General Election
Southampton Independents recommends no particular candidate in the 2024 General Election. We publish this information and the information about the other candidates to help inform Southampton residents for their vote, or for them to choose not to vote or to positively spoil their ballot by writing "none of the above". It's your choice.
The other candidates for Southampton Test, with their answers to our questions, are here.
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