Meet the parliamentary candidates for new Bicester & Woodstock constituency
The new Bicester & Woodstock constituency was formed after last year’s Boundary Commission Review and is formed of parts of constituencies such as Banbury, Henley and Witney.
Bicester.news has profiled all the prospective parliamentary candidates who could be standing in this year's General Election (latest at time of publication.)
Here are the candidates in alphabetical party order:
Conservative | Green | Labour | Liberal Democrat | Reform | Social Democrat
Rupert Harrison, Conservative
Rupert Harrison is the Conservative candidate for the new constituency, a self-described "liberal Conservative". Rupert Harrison lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and two children. He has worked in business, government and the voluntary sector, and is currently a member of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Economic Advisory Council.
Rupert is a mentor for the Pathway to Success mentorship scheme run by Operation Black Vote and Magdalen College Oxford, aimed at encouraging more black and ethnic minority people into politics, government and public service.
Ian Middleton, Green
Greens in Oxfordshire have now confirmed local councillor Ian Middleton as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the new constituency of Bicester and Woodstock which also includes Kidlington and surrounding villages.
Ian studied BSc psychology at UEL and MSc in applied psychology at Cranfield University before a short-lived career as a musician. Ian was the Green Party Parliamentary candidate for North Oxfordshire in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 General Elections and was elected as a District Councillor in Cherwell in North Oxfordshire in 2019 and sits on 3 parish councils. In 2021 Ian was elected to Oxfordshire County Council and joined the controlling alliance of Green/Libdem and Labour councillors sitting on corporate governance and scrutiny committees.
Veronica Oakeshott, Labour
Veronica Oakeshott works for Global Witness, a non-profit environmental organisation, and has previously been a campaigner on domestic abuse issues and for Save the Children. She also served as a councillor in Newham in London. In 2018, Veronica, who had been a councillor for three years, stepped down to be “closer to my family” before moving to Oxfordshire. The Labour Party councillor was born in Edinburgh to English parents and raised in Dunbar, East Lothian.
She studied politics at Newcastle University, and settled in Plaistow after working for the British High Commission in Nairobi and the Kenyan Women Parliamentary Association.
Calum Miller, Liberal Democrat
Local Liberal Democrat members have chosen Calum Miller as their candidate for the next general election in the newly-created seat of Bicester and Woodstock.
Since being elected to represent Otmoor division in 2021, Calum has been Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for finance, property and investments. He is also a Senior Fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, which he helped to establish and served as its inaugural Chief Operating Officer for over a decade. Previously, he was a senior UK civil servant, with experience in the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Department for International Development (DfID) and Foreign Office (FCO). Calum has been a school governor for over a decade and volunteers as a junior rugby coach at Gosford All Blacks. Calum lives locally, in the constituency, with his wife and children.
Augustine Obodo, Reform
Augustine Obodo is a prospective Parliamentary candidate for the Reform UK party in the Bicester & Woodstock constituency. He's also UK leader Friends of Trump UK, and Commonwealth Affairs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. (@trump_friends): He passionately believes that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of the Jewish people under the Middle East peace plan. At the heart of his advocacy, Augustine views Donald J. Trump as the embodiment of the American success story, a benchmark for excellence across fields such as real estate, sports, entertainment, and politics. For him, Trump is the quintessential businessman, an unmatched dealmaker, and one of the best.
Tim Funnel, SDP
At the next election Tim Funnell is standing as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the new Bicester and Woodstock constituency.
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