Patrick Stillman, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, has rejected the notion that there are "Lib Dem areas" or "Lib Dem voters" defined by affluence, such as those who can afford Gail's Bakery. Drawing on his experience in Camden, he said the most unexpected doors hide support, and that "you just have to knock."
Doorstep concerns across the constituency
Stillman said politics begins by showing up. In Camden borough and across Holborn and St Pancras, people rich and poor, old and young, religious or secular, reflect the same distrust and disappointment in politics, he wrote in a comment piece.
He described residents pouring their hearts out on the doorstep about adult children who, despite doing everything right, cannot get an interview for a job they have spent their young adult life preparing for. Others invite him in to show damp, mould, and visible signs of neglect from their landlord, Camden Council, with repair requests lost in a database and follow-ups ignored.
Why the party is contesting the seat
Stillman acknowledged the party could have "very easily not shown up" in Holborn and St Pancras. In the 2024 General Election, the then Prime Minister took nearly 50% of the vote, while the Liberal Democrats finished 6th with 5.8%.
He said the party is bothering because its members are bothered. The Council Group, representing wards in the north of the borough, already does "fantastic work" standing up for residents, he said, but there are issues across Camden that cannot be solved without talking to people across the area.
National agenda and liberal values
Stillman argued the Liberal Democrats have pushed the debate on Europe, social care reform, and proportional representation, claiming the Prime Minister "practically read out our manifesto on stage." He said the Greens, who have fewer MPs in Parliament than the Lib Dems have in London, like to claim they have forced the government's hand, but it is the Liberal Democrats who have set the national agenda for the next three years.
He described liberalism as a party that looks to the future, unafraid of change or showing up, even if behind a door is someone whose trust in politics is so broken that restoring it seems futile. Stillman concluded that politics is only futile if people decide it is, and that for himself and the Camden Liberal Democrats, treating politics as electoral territory belonging to someone else is never an option.
Patrick Stillman is the Liberal Democrat candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on Thursday, October 8.
