“I don't talk about numbers,” explains Tania Mathias when asked about immigration. “It’s always about people and what we need.”
Her note of independence against Theresa May’s pledge to cut net migration to below 100,000 is striking. But then Dr Mathias is no traditional Tory parliamentary candidate. An ophthalmologist, she was a refugee officer for the UN Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip, looked after HIV, Aids and TB patients in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, has treated leprosy patients in India, and more recently worked in the NHS in and around London.
Two years ago, she claimed the scalp of Liberal Democrat big beast Sir Vince Cable, one of the biggest shocks of the election night. However, with Sir Vince standing again, she appears to be facing a formidable challenge to hold on to the seat that she won with a 2,017 majority.
People toot their car horn or shout out “Vince” as the former business secretary cycles around the constituency. In 2015, the senior Lib Dem was swimming against an anti-Coalition, anti-tuition fees tide faced by his party, which was also hampered by Tory warnings of a Labour government being propped up by the SNP.
Things appear to have changed. “There is a good mood and we are getting quite a lot of switching from Labour people, unhappy during the Coalition, and some Tories are coming across,” says Sir Vince. Neither Ukip, which got 3,069 votes in 2015, nor the Greens, 2,463, are standing. Much depends on what happens to the 7,129 Labour votes. As she knocks on doors in Hampton Wick, an anti-Brexit area, the impeccably mannered Dr Mathias, 52, brings a doctor’s touch. Richard Curling, 66, a retired accountant backs her, saying: “The worry with Labour is their plans cost too much. Vince Cable was a very good MP. But I don’t like their current leader.”
The focus of the election started on Brexit, says Sir Vince, but has since shifted towards schools, the NHS, social care and Heathrow expansion.
He was the local MP for 18 years. Now 74, Sir Vince dismisses suggestions that he is too old for a Westminster comeback, saying he is “probably fitter than most 50-year-olds”. Could he have one last tilt at the Lib Dem leadership? If he wins on Thursday, he insists: “I’m going to concentrate on being a good constituency MP.”
