Episode Two: The Shopkeeper Who Became a Politician

In this episode I talk to Sally Stephenson. A shopkeeper in South Wales, she was prompted by Brexit to form the campaign group Vale of Glamorgan for Europe. In the European Parliament elections she was the Change UK candidate for Wales, and in the general election she was selected as Liberal Democrat candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan.

The contest in the Vale of Glamorgan is turning out to be a hard-fought one. The incumbent Tory MP Alun Cairns has been hit by a scandal in which a colleague of his apparently sabotaged a rape trial.

Two days before we recorded the interview, Sally was stood down as a candidate under the Unite To Remain initiative. This is an electoral pact between the Lib Dems, Greens and Plaid Cymru in which candidates are stood down to make way for a single pro-Remain candidate.

We talked about Sally’s journey from being a shopkeeper to a campaigner, and then a candidate. We also discussed the rape trial scandal, and what the apparent need for pacts like Unite To Remain say about our first-past-the-post electoral system.

This episode includes discussion of sexual assault, which some listeners may find distressing.

Listen to the episode on Audioboom.