My name is Liam Walker, and I am a County Councillor in Oxfordshire representing the Hanborough and Minster Lovell Division on Oxfordshire County Council. I have represented this division since 2017 after being re-elected again in 2021. I have also previously served as the cabinet member for highways in Oxfordshire and group chair of the Conservative Group at Oxfordshire County Council. I have lived in West Oxfordshire all my life and have played an active role in local politics since joining the party in 2011 supporting our former member of Parliament David Cameron and our current MP Robert Courts.
I have always been an active campaigner for the party which has included visits to target seat constituencies for the general election campaigns in 2015, 2017 and 2019 where I helped in 19 of our target seats during the campaign. Amongst national campaigning I always make sure I get out and about in not just my own patch with regular update leaflets to residents but also helping colleagues in other seats with their campaigns. I strongly believe that re-election campaigns start the day after you are elected not just a few months before polling day. I’ve decided to put myself forward to the CCA board as I believe my experience as a County Councillor over the past few years and as a campaigner for the past 10 will help in supporting all council colleagues across the country no matter what local authority they are standing for or represent.
Before standing for election I used to run the Conservative youth wing of the party in West Oxfordshire under its previous name of Conservative Future. As well as supporting our MP at the time David Cameron, who was a great supporter of ours, we used to hold a number of social events inviting MPs to speak at our informal gatherings. I always set out to make sure the politics was fun and that is my advice to anyone looking to run a Young Conservative branch or that is standing for local government. Politics and our party isn’t about men in suits smoking cigars and talking about their favourite policy over a glass of port – quite the opposite in fact. We are a broad church mainly owing to David Cameron who during his time as Party Leader did a lot of work to modernise the party and more importantly make us electable again.
With Oxfordshire moving into the hands of the Liberals, Labour and Green coalition I have learnt quickly that Conservatives at all levels of local government need to work together. With local elections in many of our council seats becoming much harder to fight, particularly in the southeast, I believe I have the skills to help colleagues with advice about campaigning, social media, and creating content that residents can engage with both on and offline. I believe my skills as a campaigner and from years of experience on social media, some good and some bad, I can help candidates and councillors to not just win their own seats but also find time to assist colleagues in other wards or divisions. Campaigning alone is far less fun than campaigning with a great team of people who then finish up at the local pub after knocking on doors or delivering leaflets.
Away from politics I have a keen interest in Formula One and am currently an event project manager at a major racing circuit where I have been working on events for the past 9 years. In the little spare time I have, I enjoy watching Oxford United and walking around the beautiful countryside including nearby at Blenheim Palace. If elected to the Conservative Councillors Association board I will do my best to represent the views of all Conservative colleagues no matter what local authority tier you happen to sit on, and I would like to see more younger people get more involved with both campaigning and putting themselves forward for election. I believe the CCA is the perfect group to help achieve this and working alongside fellow board colleagues we can really help improve the engagement between the party and young councillors or candidates.
