THE Jersey Liberal Conservatives have vowed to continue, despite a largely disappointing general election.
JLC leader Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache said members had met to discuss the lessons learnt from last month’s election results and agreed the party should not fold.
And he added they now aimed to field a greater number of candidates in four years’ time.
He said: ‘We had a meeting of the management committee and the unanimous view was that we should continue as a party and try to build up support over the next four years, with the view to fielding a larger number of candidates in the election in 2026.’
Three centre-right parties formed ahead of the 2022 general election – the JLC, the Progress Party and the Jersey Alliance – but all failed to make a significant impact on voters.
The JLC did the best of the three with two of its five candidates securing seats in the new Assembly, while the Progress Party and the Jersey Alliance earned one seat each: Deputy Steve Luce and Constable Philip Le Sueur respectively. The Alliance’s only successful candidate, however, has since left the party and is now an independent.
Reform Jersey fared significantly better, with ten of its 14 candidates elected.
And Deputy Bailhache said the success of the centre-left party was an indicator that party politics still had ‘something to offer’.
‘We were encouraged by the experience of Reform Jersey, which has built up its support greatly over a period of time.’
Deputy Bailhache said that the JLC had only officially registered at the start of the year, which was ‘not long enough’, adding that ‘if a party is going to succeed it needs to have a reasonable number of active supporters, which is something that can only be built over time’.
Discussing the benefits of party politics, he said: ‘I believe it is right to give the electorate the chance to know what they are voting for.
‘Having a comprehensive manifesto behind each candidate and how they can coalesce is a good thing.’
The JLC formed a pre-election coalition with the Progress Party, which is due to meet later this week to discuss its future, and Deputy Bailhache said that ‘we will certainly be wanting to talk’ with them.
Deputy Bailhache admitted that the split of the centre-right candidates across three parties could have had some impact on the election results and that the ideal scenario would be to have a single right-leaning party.
‘I think it is obviously right that if the centre-right can coalesce into a single party that would be advantageous.
Whether that will happen or not, I think we will have to wait and see,’ he said.
