By Press Release
Local Conservative members will be choosing their candidate for the new East Wight constituency on Monday, from a shortlist of four. We asked each of the aspiring MPs to answer a few simple questions about themselves, but they were instructed not to engage with the Island’s media.
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), we received an email from Dirk Russell, the Tory Party’s senior area campaign manager asking us not to publish any information about them. We will leave to our readers to speculate why that would be!
These are the four candidates and some brief information about them, which they have had the opportunity to correct.
Louise Brice spent time during her childhood on the Isle of Wight but as a teenager moved to Kent and attended Maidstone Girls’ Grammar School. She has lived in Staplehurst since 2012 with her family.
She is a primary school teacher in Kent, specialising in science and STEM subjects. She has been a councillor on Maidstone Borough Council since 2015.
Louise is a National Officer for the Conservative Women’s Organisation and is Head of Policy for the Conservative Education Society.
Harriet Hadfield grew up in Yorkshire and attended Rugby School, Leeds University to read History, then studied Broadcast Journalism at Bournemouth University. Her parents owned homes in Yorkshire, then London and Seaview, with a holiday apartment in Switzerland. She says the Isle of Wight has always been a sanctuary.
A reporter for Sky News until 2017, she moved to Geneva, with her husband and son, until 2020. After a painful divorce, which she has spoken about publicly, she returned to the UK and moved into her late grandmother’s house in Seaview. She freelanced for Sky News from 2020 to 2022. In May 2022 she started up her Island Stories podcast series.
She is a trustee for Home-Start IOW and has supported the Veteran’s Hub in Ryde and this year Walked the Wight for Mountbatten.
Joe Robertson grew up in St Helens and attended Ryde School then University College London and BPP Law School
Formerly a solicitor, specialising in family law, he is now an advisor for London-based Dementia UK. He has been an Isle of Wight councillor since 2021 and leader of the Conservative council group since last year.
He believes one of the biggest issues facing the Island is health and social care, and that more nurses should work in the community so that people can be discharged from hospital and beds freed up for those who need them most. He is also concerned about the Island’s education results and believes that closing schools should only be considered as a last resort.
He lives in St Helens with his wife and two young children.
Ian Wellby grew up in Yarmouth and attended Yarmouth Primary, Nodehill Middle and Carisbrooke High Schools. He went to Keble College, Oxford where he studied politics, philosophy and economics (PPE).
He works for an investment fund which specialises in investing in UK businesses. He and his wife own a 265-acre grassland farm near Ventnor, with 500 sheep. They have two small children.
He is a trustee of CPRE (the countryside charity) and believes three challenges facing the Island are health and social care pressure, poor education outcomes and lack of opportunities for young people – all linked to a lack of skilled jobs leading to an unbalanced population. He has
campaigned on a range of issues, including overdevelopment, improving the ferry services and informing parents on transgender issues at Island schools.
