Helen Belcher for Reading West & Mid Berkshire
About Helen
The Reading and West Berkshire & Newbury Liberal Democrats are delighted to announce that our candidate in Reading West & Mid Berkshire is Helen Belcher.
Helen was born in west Reading and grew up in this constituency, in Burghfield Common. She is a widely-acclaimed campaigner and has stood for election for the Liberal Democrats before in Berkshire and in Wiltshire, where she has campaigned for strong local services and environmental issues, taking stands against Conservative cuts, the dumping of sewage, and the Conservatives' culture war. She was appointed OBE in the New Year's Honours List in 2023 for services to the transgender community.
Commenting on her selection, Helen said:
“I grew up in this constituency, so in many ways this is a homecoming for me. I’m delighted to have this amazing opportunity to represent this beautiful area. For too long, people in our area have been abandoned by the Conservatives, with public services cut to the bone, threats to close our ticket offices, difficulty accessing timely healthcare, and sewage streaming into the Pang, the Kennet and the Thames. The people of Reading West & Mid Berkshire need a local champion who is vocal and visible, addressing the issues they care about - not more Conservative chaos, creating invisible enemies to distract from their many failures.”
You can find about the Liberal Democrat plan for the UK, which Helen will be campaigning on, here.
About Reading West & Mid Berkshire
Reading West & Mid Berkshire is a beautiful and sprawling constituency containing landmarks such as Tilehurst Water Tower, Douai Abbey, Pangbourne Bridge and the North Wessex Downs Area of Natural Beauty. Liberal Democrats are already hard at work representing it on both Reading and West Berkshire Councils - and Helen Belcher is ready to represent it in Parliament too!
This new constituency is wide open - and it's neck and neck between Helen and the Conservatives!
The 2023 Boundary Review has created Reading West & Mid Berkshire as a new constituency incorporating parts of the former Reading West, Newbury, and Wokingham constituencies. Stretching from Norcot and Beech Hill in the east to West Ilsley in the northwest and Brimpton in the southwest, it was the scene of an incredible Liberal Democrat landslide in the 2023 local elections, which saw the Lib Dems take the largest number of councillors in the constituency and almost beat the Conservatives in share of the vote.
Map by the Boundary Commission for England, mapped on Google Maps
