The Lib Dems have picked Oxfordshire cabinet member Mike Giles to fight Earley and Woodley, a seat where they finished third in 2024 on 13% of the vote.
The Liberal Democrats have selected Mike Giles to contest the Earley and Woodley parliamentary seat at the next general election.
Mr Giles is not a councillor in Wokingham borough. He sits on South Oxfordshire District Council for the Sonning Common ward, about six miles north west of Woodley on the other side of the Thames. The council’s own record of his details gives his term of office as starting on 9 May 2023 and his title as cabinet member for corporate services, policy and climate action. His ward covers the parishes of Binfield Heath, Eye and Dunsden, Harpsden, Shiplake and Sonning Common.
The selection followed a vote of members of the Wokingham Borough and Reading local parties, which between them cover the constituency. The parties announced it in a press release sent to this site on Friday 18 September.
What he says he will campaign on
The party says Mr Giles grew up in Berkshire, and that he won his seat in 2023 by nearly doubling the Liberal Democrat vote to beat the sitting Conservative. Outside politics, it says, he is chief executive of a national trade association and has 18 years of experience across membership organisations, regulated industries and elected politics. We have not been able to check those claims against a public record.
He gives three priorities for the constituency:
- the cost of living
- protecting and improving the local environment
- new community infrastructure, and in particular a new hospital for the area
In his own words: “It is an honour to be selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Earley and Woodley. This constituency deserves so much better than it has received from Westminster: greater investment, better public services, and a representative who will fight for every part of the area. I have been doing exactly that as a councillor, and I am ready to take that fight to Parliament.”
He added: “Whether it is the cost of living pressures facing local families, the environment we are leaving for the next generation, or the urgent need for a new hospital, I will be a strong and persistent voice for Earley and Woodley.”
The seat as the record has it
Earley and Woodley is a new seat, created for the 2024 general election. It is held by Yuan Yang for Labour, who has represented it since 4 July 2024.
The result declared by Wokingham Borough Council puts the Liberal Democrats third that day, on 6,142 votes and 13 per cent. Ms Yang took 18,209 votes and 40 per cent. The Conservative candidate, Pauline Jorgensen, took 17,361 and 38 per cent, a gap of 848 votes. The Greens polled 3,418 and the Social Democratic Party 784. No Reform UK candidate stood in the seat.
That is the record the party is arguing against. Its release points instead at this May’s borough elections. In the nine borough wards inside the constituency that went to the polls, it says, the Liberal Democrats took 29.3 per cent of the vote, about two points behind the Conservatives, while Labour fell to 8.4 per cent and fifth place. Reform UK finished third and the Greens fourth. The party attributes those figures to the Bracknell News rather than to the returning officer, and we have not seen the ward by ward working behind them.
The borough-wide figures are on the council’s own site and point the same way, though less sharply. Across all 19 seats contested on 7 May, the council’s record gives the Liberal Democrats 35 per cent of the vote and 12 seats, the Conservatives 29 per cent and six, Reform UK 19 per cent and none, the Greens 10 per cent and none, and Labour 7 per cent and one.
Mr Giles reads that as a two-horse race: “These results show that the real choice in Earley and Woodley is between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Labour and Green voters who want change should know that only the Liberal Democrats can deliver it here.”
What the two local parties said
Simon Curtis, chair of the Wokingham Borough Liberal Democrats, said: “Reading and Wokingham Borough Liberal Democrats are delighted to have selected Mike Giles as our candidate for Earley and Woodley. He has already shown what a determined and effective campaigner he is, with a proven record of winning elections and delivering for local communities. Mike has the experience, the energy and the values which will make him an outstanding MP for this constituency, and we look forward to working with him and our Reading Lib Dem colleagues to win this seat.”
Henry Wright, chair of Reading Liberal Democrats, said: “I am excited that local members have selected Mike to be our candidate for Earley and Woodley, and particularly the areas of Whitley within the Reading local party area. Labour are letting us down and Mike is the person to fight for a freer, fairer Britain for all of us.”
What it means for you
Nothing yet, and not for some time. A Parliament dissolves five years after it first meets under section 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, and MPs took their seats on 4 July 2024. Unless an election is called sooner, this seat need not be contested again until 2029.
What a selection does mean is that the parties are starting to campaign, and that there is now a named Liberal Democrat to hold to those three priorities. Earley and Woodley covers Earley, Woodley and Shinfield, plus parts of south Reading and surrounding villages, according to the party’s release. Yuan Yang remains the MP for the whole of it, and constituents who want something raised in Parliament go to her, not to a candidate.
On the cost of living point, the bill most readers can check for themselves is the council tax, which varies by parish across the borough: see our Wokingham council tax bands page for what each area pays. For everything else the council decides locally, our Wokingham planning news page tracks the applications and the Local Plan.
We have approached no other party for comment on this selection. If you are a candidate or a local party with something to announce in Wokingham, Earley or Woodley, send it to us and we will look at it on the same terms.
Sources: press release issued by Wokingham Borough and Reading Liberal Democrats, 18 September 2026; South Oxfordshire District Council councillor record; Wokingham Borough Council declared election results for 4 July 2024 and 7 May 2026; UK Parliament members register.
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