With a week to go before the general election, the campaign to be Woking MP has heated up between the three main parties. Jonathan Lord, the Conservative candidate, has accused his Lib Dem rival Will Forster of “misleading voters” and being “less than truthful” and “untrustworthy”. Mr Lord, who was re-elected MP in 2019 with a 9,767 majority over Cllr Forster, said the deputy borough council leader “continually refers to Woking Council's finances, blaming others, but never mentions that he personally supported and voted for the hundreds of millions of pounds of loans for the main Victoria Square development, and, indeed, that all the key financial decisions were taken on an overtly cross-party basis, supported by the Lib Dems.” Mr Lord also said Cllr Forster claiming credit for the new diagnostic centre at Woking Community Hospital, was “a pack of lies”.

Will Forster
Will Forster said Mr Lord as either got his fact wrongs or is outright lying about his main opponent (Submitted)

“The council had no initial involvement in the project whatsoever, and, later on, Lib Dem councillors even managed to delay the project by 'calling in' the planning application," Mr Lord said.

“The project director and other key decision makers had no idea who Will Forster was, and possibly still don't know who he is,” he added.

Asked to respond to the accusations, Cllr Forster told the News & Mail: “Jonathan has either got his fact wrongs or is outright lying about his main opponent as we get into the final stages of this election. 

“This is a clear sign that he and the Conservatives are desperate, trying to rewrite history and have nothing positive to offer the people of Woking.

“Jonathan voted for cutting council funding by 25% since 2016 and stood by whilst his party effectively bankrupted Woking Council.  

“Voters clearly blame the Conservatives for bankrupting Woking, having rejected every single Conservative candidate since 2022, and instead chosen the Lib Dems to clean up the mess.”

And Cllr Forster's endorsement by Gerry Mitchell, who represented Labour in the 2019 general election, was scorned by a furious local Labour group. Ms Mitchell, a staunch supporter of proportional representation, urged residents to vote for Cllr Forster, but Woking Labour stress that she is no longer a member of the party and does not speak for them in any way. Ese Erheriene, the Labour parliamentary candidate, said: "We are fighting hard for every single vote in Woking. It doesn't feel like a two-horse race to the people we speak to on the doorstep."