NEWLY elected UKIP councillor Gordon Gillick from Wisbech admitted tonight he never spent a penny on his campaign – not even the cost of a leaflet.
“To be honest I didn’t do anything,” he said. “I just put my name down and that was that. I didn’t even ring anyone up.”
But that didn’t stop 713 voters in the villages of Elm, Coldham, Wisbech St Mary, Parson Drove, Murrow, Friday Bridge and Guyhirn turning out to elect him as their new county councillor.
As the result was announced today at Hudson Leisure Centre, Wisbech, Mr Gillick – the only winning UKIP candidate to make a rostrum acceptance speech- said: “Well that’s a turn up.”
To stunned hall he added: “I think people who voted did so out of frustration and they have turned to UKIP maybe to give them a proper voice in local government.
“If I can do that in any way I will give it my best shot. It’s all new to me but I shall do my best to represent them and to tell them the truth.”
Afterwards Mr Gillick, still looking stunned by the result, said he had been a UKIP member for two to three years and had given the party small donations.
“I just feel we are not represented,” he said. “A lot of good men have lost their position today because of what is happening in central Government.
“We feel unhappy and I shouldn’t be unhappy at my age- I should be coasting into retirement.”
Mr Gillick said the week he signed up to stand as a candidate for the county council elections he had been working in London on a church (his work involves set design, sculpturing, restoration and painting).
“I got a lung infection and was out of it for a while,” he said.
He was looking forward to the next four years and representing the Waldersey division.
He accepts he can be outspoken (his wife is Victoria Gillick, a well known anti abortion campaigner) but offered the expectation of enlivening the debating chamber.
“I will have to watch my tongue,” he joked. “You may sometimes have to filter what I say.”
RESULT
Gavin Booth (Lib Dem) 608
Gordon Gillick (UKIP) 713
Jess Hibbert (Lab) 139
*Will Sutton (Con) 528
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