Jonathan Smith

Jonathan Smith is a former Director of Social Services and Strategic Director in local government, and Chief Executive in the NHS. He became a service improvement consultant in Children’s Services, and completed his career in public service by taking on the role as Chair of safeguarding conferences and other key meetings for vulnerable children and young people. He worked for many years in Cheshire and Merseyside, as well as elsewhere in the country.

As a highly-experienced professional and public servant, Jonathan would be ideally placed to provide the mature and informed expertise required in Parliament to help find answers to the many pressing challenges that MPs of all parties will face after the General Election

In particular, the years, which Jonathan has spent, as a leader in both the NHS and local government, means that he has a major contribution to make to rescuing our health and social care services from their alarming decline.

Jonathan has been a Member of the Liberal Democrats, or the Party’s predecessors, since 1983, but his senior public service career prevented him taking up an active, political role. He was a Liberal Democrat candidate in Oldham East and Saddleworth in 2017, and Tatton in 2019, where he increased the Liberal Democrat vote by 74%, and the vote share by more than double.

Instead of just turning up at election time, Jonathan has worked and campaigned tirelessly, across the Tatton Constituency, over the past four-and-a-half years:leading and supporting many different campaigns, being a frequent contributor to the Letters Page of the Knutsford Guardian, and, with his team, delivering leaflets and Residents’ Letters.

He has led, or actively supported, the following campaigns and local concerns, on a wide variety of subjects, e.g.:

• Opposing the tarmacing-over of rewilded land off Longridge in Knutsford
• Protecting the precious eco-system of Lindow Moss
• Improving access to mental health services for farmers and their families
• Restoring birthing services at Macclesfield Hospital
• Bringing a banking hub to Knutsford
• Challenging the Airport about excessive night flying
• Finding a way to get a decent train service on the Mid-Cheshire Line
• Objecting to the Blue Bell development in North Knutsford
• Raising awareness of the serious decline in primary and community health and social care services

Jonathan has also made sure that local residents have a comprehensive idea of his values and political priorities, through the letters, which he has had published in the Letters Page of the Knutsford Guardian: 84 since 2020, and counting! No-one should be in any doubt about where he stands on all the key issues of the day

Jonathan has lived, with his wife, Alison, in Bowdon for over thirty-one years. They have four children, and five grand-children. Jonathan’s main interests, beyond his family and politics, centre around sport, music and travel. Jonathan has sung in a local, Knutsford choir since January 2021, and he and his family have often shopped, walked, and spent enjoyable leisure time in the Cheshire area.