Craig Cox is gracious in defeat and has released this statement following Ben Howlett's landslide victory. Cox also talks about the 1% turnout, even tBg thinks Cox deserved more than 60 votes:
Craig said: "I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ben Howlett on winning the position of Conservative Future Chairman, and wish him luck for his term of
office. He fought a long campaign in which he travelled many miles and spent a
lot of time meeting and drinking with fellow Conservatives. It is clear he
deserves this victory more than I do, and I am pleased that a friend of mine has
won the leadership of the youth wing of the Party I revere.
The thanks I owe to my supporters, friends and campaign team can not be
expressed through words alone. To put it simply, thank you all for your efforts
in attempting to bring my sort of change to our organisation. For my part, I am
singularly responsible for our defeat and I can only apologise for letting you
down.
At the end of the day, I lost by 53 votes in an election with a turnout of
around 1%. I am proud of my policy centred campaign, and the need for our youth
wing to be more active in the political sphere. It is clear that CF needs to
improve its membership data, especially in the throes of an election. I can not
accept that in an organisation of a reputed 20,000 members, only 200 or so had
the means to vote. Even as a candidate, I did not receive a ballot paper. In the
interests of getting on with the job and helping our party stick it to Labour, I
will not be contesting the result of the election, but urge the new Chairman to
take a serious look into increasing the legitimacy from the shambolic nature of
this election to something more befitting of our organisation.
However, do not let this detract from a tfine victory from my opponent. He is an
honest man in good stead, a friend of mine, and now the National Chairman of our
organisation.
Good luck, Ben, and I wish you the very best."
