Friends and supporters have been generously congratulating me on my team’s contribution to the demise of our former MP.

In that sense what was achieved could be counted as a success.

There is no doubt she [Liz Truss] had shamelessly put her own ambitions ahead of the interests of those she was elected to represent and for that alone, quite apart from her performance on the national stage, she deserved to go.

I was often asked during the campaign whether this was a grudge match, given my stated opposition to Liz Truss’s nomination 15 years ago forecasting that this might happen.

‘No’ was my answer as I genuinely wished I had been proved wrong. We have had wonderful representatives in Westminster who have pursued successful ministerial careers, but the difference was that they remained rooted to the constituency.

There was ample opportunity for Liz to prove me wrong. But that was not to be, and, come this election and following on her disastrous premiership, it was time for the Turnip to put up or shut up.

This was a campaign in the Ealing Studio style of comedies but with very serious intent. I embarked on this project with a wonderfully British team of amateurs.

A retired lawyer as my agent, a retired accountant as my treasurer, a retired professor as my analytics adviser and a retired county councillor and printer as head of procurement.

We engaged a very able part time web designer and social media operator. Urging us on in the background was a retired financial regulator with extensive experience in political campaigning.

We navigated our way through the complexities of the rules of the Electoral Commission and we embarked on a strategy which opened with the strap line ‘Should I stand? ‘.

We toured the village halls of the constituency; and while these meetings were hardly ‘sell outs’, we garnered a supporters’ network of more than one hundred.

Having then announced my intention to stand on the same day as Liz Truss launched her book, we successfully attracted a considerable amount of press attention both locally and nationally.  

Following an ambitiously styled ‘Campaign Rally’ at the Thetford rugby ground attended by none other than Martin Bell, the ‘man in the white suit’. I was to embark on a walk a la Rory Stewart around the constituency with the objective of winning recognition and a profile across the entire constituency the fifth largest in the country.

Inconveniently the prime minister called an early election giving me no time to introduce myself to those constituents who would have no clue as to who I was or what I stood for. This is the constant challenge for all those who stand nobly as Independents. Until this election only two had ever achieved success at a general election Martin Bell and Dr Richard Taylor and on both occasions, they ran against only one opponent.

This time I was to face eight.

My team suddenly expanded to a core of about 12 based in a barn now comprising more volunteer retirees an army officer, a chartered surveyor, a police officer, a drama teacher accompanied by her dog called Gus and by contrast two university graduates running the social media guided by a retired PR man.  

The active supporters now numbered more than 200. The banners went up around the constituency faster than Highways could remove them.

All the while though, we were fighting against the tide. The polling companies did not even list us as a named candidate in the polling returns.

We were just an ‘Other (fill in the details)’ while all other candidates had an assigned box to tick.

The tactical voters believing I had no chance of winning, would be lured into backing either Labour or Conservative depending on who they did not want to win. Farage beguiled others into voting Reform. A large number (I calculate 4,500) who voted Conservative last time did not vote at all.

This sounds a little like sour grapes, but I am disappointed we did not win given the extra-ordinary effort put in by my team and supporters as I believe that with time and better polling we could have done.

I am disappointed too because there is much to be ‘called out’ in this constituency on education, planning and infrastructure as well as the main national issues around cost of living and health.

I sincerely hope Terry Jermy will do so and I remain available to encourage him.