At a packed Hustings event of local Harrogate and Knaresborough party members held on 24 November 2013 at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate, Liberal Democrats selected Helen Flynn, with an overwhelming majority over her two competitors, to contest the General Election in 2015.
Afterwards Helen Flynn said:
I am thrilled to have been selected to contest Harrogate & Knaresborough in 2015 and look forward to doing everything I can to win the seat back. I am a local candidate and a Harrogate Borough Councillor. My husband and I own a business in Harrogate and my two teenaged sons attend Harrogate Grammar School. I am an authentic candidate for my area and look forward to getting out on the doorstep and meeting residents and explaining why I would be their best choice for Harrogate and Knaresborough in 2015.
Helen Flynn, 50, entered politics in her early 40’s after a varied career incorporating: six years in book publishing in Hertfordshire and New York, USA; setting up and running her own successful retail and mail order business; and many years in the voluntary and community sector.
She currently sits on the central Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee, the federal body charged with formulating and proposing Liberal Democrat policy for members to vote on at conference twice a year. Her main policy specialisms are education and transport.
Cllr John Fox, Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency chair, said:
It is great that we have selected a local candidate with real-life experience, a family person that voters can easily relate to. People are tired of the current crop of career politicians at Westminster who have little experience of, or feel for the difficult circumstances that many people find themselves in at the moment. We are hoping and planning for a positive result in 2015 and believe that we have a great candidate now in place to head up the campaign.
