Chris Wardle

Newport Pagnell resident and MK City Councillor. Promoted by Peter Geary Milton Keynes Conservatives 111 Queensway MK2 2DN

[Luke O'Nien @LukeONien]

EUROPA LEAGUE was never the dream.

Not because I didn’t want it.

Because if I’m being honest, I never thought it was possible.

What kid would?

Especially when 12 years ago I was playing non league football in the Ryman Premier and Conference South, just trying to stay alive in the game.

What kid dreams about Europe when, two weeks into the off season, his dad has to tell him he’s been released by Watford F.C. over the phone?

I was heartbroken.

My dad looked at me and said:

“What are we doing tomorrow?”

To which I replied with the words he’d drilled into me my whole life:

“We’re training, Dad.”

So we trained.

Every single day.

My dad emailed every EFL club asking for an opportunity.

One club replied.

One.

That was all I needed.

An opportunity.

@WealdstoneFC and @wwfcofficial , I’ll always be indebted to you.

Then came the move to @SunderlandAFC .

A massive club.

A massive opportunity.

And I couldn’t wait to prove myself.

But 45 minutes into my debut… hooked.

“Rabbit caught in headlights. Waste of money. Get rid.”

Then came the Championship.

“He’s not good enough for this level.”

Then the Premier League.

“Let’s give him a debut and then get rid of him.”

I understood the doubt.

I’ve faced it my whole career.

And truthfully, you doubt yourself too at times.

But I’ve always tried to live by one mindset:

Outwork your doubt.

You don’t always need to see the full journey.

You just need to take the next step.

Then the next one.

And then another.

Even when social media tells you you’re not good enough.

Even when the voice inside your own head whispers the same thing.

Keep working.

Keep learning.

Keep showing up.

Because sometimes the places you end up are bigger than anything your younger self could’ve ever imagined.

To any young player reading this, don’t put a ceiling on yourself too early.

You genuinely have no idea where this game and life can take you.

And to the boys… thank you.

You removed the glass ceiling I’d placed on myself.

What a team.

What a club.

What a fanbase.

Sunderland… rocking all over Europe ❤️🤍

And in the words of Granit Xhaka:

“This is just the beginning.”

[Shazna Muzammil @Shazna_Muzammil]

Residents are tired of the fighting and the empty promises. So are we.

On Thursday, vote for a team that will actually deliver for MK.

#FixTheBasics #PlanTheFuture
#LoveMk
#VoteConservative 🗳️💙

[Shazna Muzammil @Shazna_Muzammil]

What a beautiful day it was to have @Matt_VickersMP with us on the doorstep.

It’s good to know our message is cutting through.

#VoteConservative on the 7th of May.

@MKConservatives

[Matt Vickers MP @Matt_VickersMP]

💪 The @MKConservatives are doing everything they can to take the fight to the city's terrible Labour council.

Brilliant to join @Shazna_Muzammil and the team to campaign for our brilliant local @Conservatives champions Liam, Mark and Chris.

🗳️ #VoteConservative on 7 May.

[Sky Sports Football @SkyFootball]

MK Dons score two beauties in the space of three minutes, needing a win against Tranmere Rovers to secure their promotion to League One! 🔥📈

[Milton Keynes Dons @MKDonsFC]

WE'VE DON IT!!!

Today's victory sees #MKDons secure automatic promotion to Sky Bet League One! 🤍

#COYD

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

D
D
W
W
W
W
W
W
D
W
W

Unbeaten in our last ELEVEN league games against Newcastle 👊

[Luke O'Nien @LukeONien]

To any young kid reading this…

I’ve doubted myself in every league I’ve ever played in.

Ryman Prem.
Conference South.
League Two.
League One.
Championship…

And even right before my first Premier League start last night.

That’s not weakness.
That’s being human.

That’s being alive.

When I was growing up, I thought Premier League players were superhuman.

Like they never felt doubt.
Like they never felt nerves.

The truth is…. it’s often the opposite.

Social media won’t tell you that sometimes you step out there with no confidence. That’s normal. That’s ok!

You now have to then step out there with courage.

Confidence feels good.
Courage doesn’t.

But you do it anyway. Show courage enough times…. You build confidence.

Here’s the mindset that’s carried me for 31 years.

When it goes well:

I worked for it.
I earned it.
Well done.
Watch it back.
Get better.

When it doesn’t:

I know I prepared the best I could.
It didn’t go exactly to plan. That’s football.

But Well done.
Watch it back.
Get better.

That simple recipe gave me a special moment last night.

Leading the team out.
Playing alongside a group that fights for every ball.
Celebrates tackles.
Gives everything for the city of Sunderland.

And sharing it with supporters who never gave up, even after four tough seasons in League One.

So if you’re a young player feeling doubt…
Low confidence…
Or like you don’t believe in yourself…

You’re not alone.

Every player feels it.

Confidence isn’t something you’re given.

It’s something you build.

Bit by bit.
Day by day.
With courage.
With work.
With learning.

Anything worth building takes time.

But that’s what makes it so worthwhile!

Thank you @SunderlandAFC ❤️🤍

[Johnny Luk @Johnny__Luk]

🍺 Well deserved break with the @MKConservatives family after another busy week campaigning. @Shazna_Muzammil @CPWardle @Ben_Everitt

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

My left-leaning, champagne-socialist friends were so excited at the prospect of a Labour government last year. “Of course we want you to win Kemi” they told me, “but after 14 years, it’s time for change”.

Well they got that change and they are absolutely aghast at what's happening to the country. It’s change for the worse. They thought they would be getting Tony Blair’s Labour or Gordon Brown’s Labour, instead they got Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour with Keir Starmer at the helm.

Starmer entered Downing Street with no plan, and he has been found out in the most brutal way possible. As he openly admitted last weekend, he is too easily distracted and doesn’t read what his advisers put in front of him.

Labour have taken a wrecking ball to the British economy. They have waged war on business and overseen a rise in unemployment almost every single month that they’ve been in office.

Worryingly, the farcical events of the past week have blown an even bigger hole in the public finances. Further tax rises in the autumn now look inevitable. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have shown themselves to be serially incompetent and it’s working families who are set to pay the price.

The laundry list of this government's failures makes for grim reading. Snatching away winter fuel payments from vulnerable pensioners, only to u-turn when the political pressure got too much for them. Taxes raised to their highest levels since WWII. Surrendering British territory in the Chagos Islands – and paying £30 billion for the privilege.

One of Keir Starmer's first acts was to scrap the Rwanda deterrent, instantly removing the most effective means of dissuading illegal migrants from getting into small boats. Instead, Starmer promised to 'smash the gangs' and so far all he's done is smash records for new arrivals. We've already passed 20,000 illegal Channel crossings in 2025, making this the worst year ever, and there are now more migrants being housed in asylum hotels on the taxpayers' expense than there were when Labour took office.

This has been a year defined by constant lies and u-turns. The only thing consistent about Keir Starmer is his inconsistency. He doesn’t listen and he doesn’t learn.

From grooming gangs to winter fuel, he arrogantly dismisses the principled and reasoned case we are making, only to later buckle to the spendthrifts in his party, who think that the workers and grafters can be squeezed forever to pay for benefits. Many Labour MPs have never worked in a private business let alone run one. They just don't get it.

His inability to get even modest reductions in spending increases (not a cut as most assumed) to the welfare bill shocked even me. I told Starmer that he would have our support if he brought forward serious welfare reforms that actually got costs down and got people into work, but instead he capitulated to his backbenchers.

It has only taken a year, but this is a Prime Minister already in a doom loop. Keir Starmer is in office but not in power. Left-wing Labour MPs can now smell blood, and the government’s authority has all but drained away.

Ultimately, Starmer is a lawyer not a leader. He is a mediocre middle-manager seemingly intent on delivering his grim vision of managed decline for Britain.

By contrast, I am an optimist. I believe in Britain’s potential. I want a complete renewal of our country so that it’s fit for the 2030s. We’re not going to waste our time in opposition bending the knee as Starmer did, we’re going to have a proper plan in place so we’re ready for government.

I’m doing all of this because it is now abundantly clear that only the Conservative Party knows what needs to be done to deliver a strong economy and a more robust society. We’re on the side of the makers - the business owners, the people running our public services - not the takers, such as the illegal migrants turning up on our shores and demanding handouts.

By contrast, Labour and Reform are like two bald men fighting over a comb – both scrabbling around to borrow and spend even more and pump up our bloated welfare state. One party is too incompetent to get a grip, and the other is a one-man band telling people what they want to hear, without any details of how they will deliver.

I am the only party leader prepared to tell people the truth – that our country needs to live within its means and we need to get spending under control so we don’t burden our children with our debts, which is inherently unfair.

It might only have been a year, but Labour have already done enormous harm to our country. We’ve got another four years of this. Britain deserves better.

[Chris Wardle @CPWardle]

Great to meet Kemi tonight briefly at @LGACons in Liverpool with @Shazna_Muzammil and my Conservative Next Generation Cohort fresh from PMQs #lgaconf2025

[Shazna Muzammil @Shazna_Muzammil]

After #PMQs today @KemiBadenoch joined us Cllrs @LGACons in Liverpool and it was just the dose of inspiration we needed to keep doing what we do locally.

She reminded us: policies don’t matter if no one believes in us. The mission now? Rebuild trust from the ground up. Get more Cllrs elected.

Whilst it must have been quite a trek to get to us, I know that whole room of Cllrs appreciated it very much. #ThankYou
#LGAConf

@MKConservatives
@Conservatives
@CCACllrs @CPWardle

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

✍️ We are delighted to confirm the permanent signing of Enzo Le Fée!

The 25-year-old joins from AS Roma for an undisclosed fee, penning a four-year deal on Wearside ❤️

[Chris Wardle @CPWardle]

Billie Piper as the Doctor will be a masterstroke. #DoctorWho

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

Patrick Roberts.
Anthony Patterson.
Dan Neil.
Dennis Cirkin.
Luke O'Nien.
Trai Hume.

From League One to the PREMIER LEAGUE ❤️

[Luke O'Nien @LukeONien]

WE are Premier League 🥹❤️🤍 #TilTheEnd

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

GOOD MORNING FROM PREMIER LEAGUE SIDE, SUNDERLAND AFC.

[Milton Keynes Dons @MKDonsFC]

Thank you, Lewie. From all of us. 🧡👏

#COYD

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

WHAT A GOAL ENZO LE FÉE!! 😍

[Sunderland AFC @SunderlandAFC]

N̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ fall in love with a loan player 🥰

[LGA Conservatives @LGACons]

➡️The LGA Conservatives 'next generation' cohort is now being taken through a mock council budget debate👇👇👇