Sarah Olney

Sarah Olney
Member of Parliament for Richmond Park In office 1 December 2016 - Present

Sarah Olney is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Richmond Park who defeated the former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith in a by-election on 1 December 2016. Overturning his 23,015 majority, she took a fraction under 50% of the entire vote to record a majority of 1,872. Large numbers of local Labour voters backed her, with the Labour candidate, Christian Wolmar, losing his deposit.

Sarah Olney said that voters had:

“sent a shockwave through this Conservative Brexit government.”

She added:

“And our message is clear: we do not want a hard Brexit. We do not want to pull out of the single market. We will not let intolerance, division and fear win.”

Candidature confirmed

Sarah Olney was confirmed on 30 October 2016 as the Lib Dem candidate in the 2016 Richmond Park by-election, four days after being interviewed on the BBC's Daily Politics programme.

She said overturning Zac Goldsmith's 23,015 majority was "incredibly doable" for the Lib Dems, who held the south-west London seat from 1997 until 2010, and finished second in the 2015 General Election.

Although Zac Goldsmith has said he wanted the vote, on 1 December 2016, to be a referendum on the government's decision to back a third runway at Heathrow airport, Sarah Olney, who also opposes Heathrow expansion, told Sky News:

Brexit - which Zac Goldsmith backed, unlike most Richmond voters - would "obviously" emerge as another campaign issue.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Richmond Park prospective candidate: I would vote against Article 50 in Parliament	Statement	4 November 2016	Christian Wolmar	Statement by Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate Christian Wolmar who aims to win the 2016 Richmond Park by-election

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