Defeated Conservative Wellingborough by-election candidate Helen Harrison hits out at 'sexist' coverage - but vows to stand again

Defeated Conservative by-election candidate Helen Harrison has said she intends to apply to stand again in the Wellingborough constituency when the nation goes to the polls.

The 51-year-old North Northants councillor and qualified physiotherapist has said she was ‘cross’ and ‘frustrated’ by her depiction in the media as ‘Bone’s girlfriend’.

A fortnight after the Wellingborough poll, in which Labour overturned a huge majority to win, in a self-penned article for website Conservative Home Ms Harrison said she believed she had been the subject of a humiliating sexist campaign designed to discredit her candidacy.

Speaking to this paper, she said: “I wanted people to hear my side of things. I’m quite frustrated and reasonably cross.

"I was portrayed in a one-dimensional way throughout the campaign. It was like I didn’t exist. I was a non-person. I’m highly qualified professionally and politically.

"I was referred to continuously as his girlfriend. It was deliberately done to undermine me. It’s quite upsetting.”

Ms Harrison is deputy chairman (political) of Wellingborough Conservatives, was a co-founder of Grassroots Out, and a Conservative parliamentary candidate at the 2015 and 2017 general elections.

In the run up to the campaign Ms Harrison’s partner – ousted MP Peter Bone – was said to be considering standing as an independent unless she was adopted as the candidate.

Candidates from an authorised list are chosen by the local conservative association – colleagues and loyal close associates of Ms Harrison and Mr Bone.

In her article she says that given the ‘high level of interest’ in her candidacy, it was unsurprising ‘considerable effort’ had been made to ‘unearth information’ to ‘discredit’ her.

She goes on to say the description of her as ‘Bone’s girlfriend’ was ‘deliberately reductive’ and ‘degrading’ and done in an ‘overtly sexist fashion’.

Ms Harrison has been living with Peter Bone, the ousted former MP for Wellingborough, for more than five years and had hoped to succeed him after he was booted out by constituents in a recall petition. A report had found he bullied a former staff member and upheld a complaint of sexual misconduct.

Ms Harrison said her six-week campaign to win the seat had left her tired and ‘shocked’.

She said: “I’ve been completely exhausted. It was 12-hours-a day for six weeks. I’ve got my mojo back and I’m back in the groove. I’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do as a councillor and as a mother.”

Although she believes her campaign was skewed by her and Mr Bone’s relationship being central to how her candidacy was perceived, she also says the by-election was a forgone conclusion.

She said: “We were, I now know, always going to lose. Time and again when I knocked on doors, previously Conservative voters told me that it was not personal, but they couldn’t vote Conservative this time. They were fed up with issues like sky-high immigration. However, many said they would vote for me at the next election."

With the general election looming, she is ready to throw her hat back in the ring. Boundary changes brought in for the general election will see several areas switch to neighbouring constituencies – Wollaston and Isham will go from Wellingborough with Irthlingborough crossing the boundary.

As winning candidate Gen Kitchen (Labour) finds her feet as the MP for Wellingborough, Ms Harrison says ‘it’s all to play for and that ‘she will be back’.

She added: “I absolutely want to represent the people of Wellingborough. It’s where I live. I would like to be reselected – I’ll be putting myself forward. I’m feeling relatively rested and ready.”

For Ms Harrison’s full article on Conservative Home click here.