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Election 2010 result: Jackson’s lead increases in Peterborough
John Peach and Stewart Jackson at the Peterborough count at the Town Hall.
THE Conservative Party retained its strangle-hold on Peterborough as Stewart Jackson boosted his majority to stay on as the city’s MP.
Mr Jackson, who won the seat in 2005 by 2,740 votes from Labour’s Helen Clark, won 18,133 votes from city residents, almost 5,000 more than second-placed Labour candidate Ed Murphy, who polled 13,272 votes.
Support for Liberal Democrat Nick Sandford continued to grow, as he took 8,816 votes to finish third, while UKIP candidate Frances Fox was next with 3,007.
Speaking before cheering supporters in Peterborough Town Hall, Mr Jackson dedicated his win to his wife Sarah and vowed to be a strong presence in his constituency.
He said: “Five years ago I won this seat from the Labour candidate and said it was the beginning of the rennaissance of the Conservative Party and now we can see that prediction coming true.
“My opponents in this election have fought a dedicated and spirited campaign and mostly it has been good-natured. We have a huge challenge in this city and it is for me to dedicate myself to being a diligent, hard-working and committed community based MP for the people of Peterborough.
“It is to my wife who I make my most sincere thanks as my most stalwart supporter.”
Hopes of an early result were shortlived, with the verification of ballot papers taking much longer than predicted and candidates hoping to be put out of their misery had to wait until 4am, not 1.30am as first thought. Mr Jackson added: “I think the turnout is really wonderful news, irrespective of the political views, and it shows that people still believe in the system and that British politics is not broken.
“We obviously have a strong national message, but obviously we have also focused on a very local campaign, explaining my record here in the last five years.
“I think the people I spoke to generally do appreciate that I try to be a diligent, hard working local MP and being the representative for Peterborough has been a great privilege and honour for me.”
Mr Murphy said before the results were announced that a victory for Labour would be to limit the Tories to a 10,000-vote win, and though he got his wish, he was disappointed with the result.
He said: “I’m pretty upset, but it was a privilege to stand for an aggressive alliance of democratic socialists from here in Peterborough.
“We bucked the national swing and got votes from over a quarter of the electorate, but I really do think we need an alternative voting system.”
Mr Murphy was guarded on whether he would be standing for election again, adding: “I’m passionate about Peterborough and want to see someone elected who is from Peterborough, if that’s to be me then that’s to be me.”
With confident predictions of Peterborough being a safe seat, the number of people in attendance at Town Hall was low, with police and media outnumbering supporters with little sign of an upset on the cards.
And despite the boost to the Liberal Democrats of Nick Clegg’s TV performances, there was no fairytale ending for Mr Sandford, who remained upbeat in defeat.
He said: “In conclusion I think we’re quite pleased. We have certainly increased the number of votes on what we received last time, so we are achieving a natural rise in support.
“Everyone was talking of a big fight between Labour and Conservative, but I think it’s quite positive for Peterborough that we increased our vote percentage.”
There were 45,119 total votes cast and 192 spoilt ballots.
Green candidate Fiona Radic, who is also standing for city council election in the Central Ward, said she had been exhausted by the whole experience but found running for Parliamentary election has given her better exposure she said: “I’m reasonably pleased with how our campaign went. I got some lovely feedback coming from all sorts of strange, unexpected places and I think the difference between running for Parliament is that it means you speak to more people and get better exposure.
“I’m feeling tired, very tired, I did not expect it to be so draining but it’s been quite good fun and a nice chance to chat to people.
“I think this has been the first general election when people have not necessarily voted for the big two parties, the leaders’ debates have changed the political landscape.”
The council chamber was one of five rooms within Town Hall that was occupied by vote counters and verifiers, who totalled more than 130 on the night in a major council operation.
They were feverishly ripping open the white General Election ballot forms and making the tally, while the green city council papers were checked for spoiled ballots before being counted later today.
Independent candidate John Swallow said he was disappointed that he did not make a major dent in the votes for the big parties and said it was unlikely he will run for Parliament again.
However, having been bitten by the election bug, he said he would look to help other candidates looking to make the leap into either local or national politics.
He said: “I’m disappointed, we tried to do something different but I guess that people still look to the three main political parties.
“The campaign we ran was brilliant and the responses we were getting from people were fantastic, but it has simply not transferred into votes.
“When people get into the ballot booths they seem to be sticking with the big three parties.
“I think now I’ll do a Tony Benn and leave Parliament to get into politics. I think I would like to support other people if they were looking to get onto the city council or into Parliament.”
UK Independence Party candidate Frances Fox turned up at the Town Hall with a victory speech prepared, but the night ended in disappointment for her.
But she said the reaction she had from residents of the city said that people are unhappy with the European Union and the levels of immigration into the country.
She said: “I have been stopped today with people telling me they were going to vote for me, but I cannot grumble about what’s going to happen.
“We are the only party that’s doing anything about immigration, but I don’t think some of the fringe parties have been given enough media exposure, they have been left out.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 22 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
Trigger
Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 07:24 PMI am a socialist but cannot support the current Labour party as most are champagne socialists just in it for the easy money, most are fairly wealthy people in their own right by normal standards and those that are not seek to fill their boots with our cash, but then the same can be said of the other parties on that score. I do however remember several Conservative governments and how right wing they can be, you only have to look at the remarks recently from Nicholas Winterton on standard class train travel to see the type of people the Conservative party is filled with. I believe in a fair deal for all I am not convinced many politicians from all parties share that view.
Roger LeChat
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 07:37 PMNorthernstar...Are you one of New Labours spin doctors? Brown sold off the gold reserves at a time when gold was at a record low, so when we needed it the cupboard was bare. Gordon Brown may win accolades from the USA, but not many from his own people, after all it was Gordon who stated we will never go back to the days of boom and bust...How wrong he was. We should also remember that what Gordon says it not always what Gordon means...as the people of Rochdale know only too well. Gordon offered a referendum on the European treaty, then signed it himself...Gordon allowed the Scottish and Welsh assemblies to have no interference from Westminster but England is stuck with a plethora of Scottish and Welsh Labour MP's having far too much of a say in our lives...At least once in your unelected lifetime as leader do the honourable thing and fall on your sword and the sooner the better....
Northern Star
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 06:48 PMdoes anyone remember Micheal Howard when he was the leader of the Conservative Party? His manifesto and how far right it was? not far off the BNP ! David Cameron was the author, how he has changed. Flip is an understatement. Gordon Brown on the other hand has had accolades from the USA on taking the right decisions on the WORLD economy. Lord Andrew Sachs was also full of praise on his background unpublicised work on cross cultural conflicts removing many obstacles
DGS
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 12:29 PMDalek, are you still under the illusion that the labour party are actually some kind of champion of the working class?? Get real, that ship sailed long ago. As a typical socialist I see you still cling onto the classic class warfare ticket. I guess you would like wedgie Benn as the next labour leader, which to be fair, he was at least honest about his marxist beliefs unlike the 'honestly we've changed' rhetoric of the BlairBroon era. There is no divide between working class and middle class anymore, lazy managers?? Oh dear oh dear. Having been a manager and part of various teams I can say with accuracy you find lazy workers and lazy managers alike. I think you will find tax exiles etc are a pretty tiny proportion compared to the vast number of illegals, and benefit fraudsters in our midst. Have a good day comrade, I believe Cuba is nice this time of year.
The Inquisitor
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 12:03 PMDear o dear. You Tories should blame Sky News. They lost you this election with their campaign for presidential style leadership debates. Great TV, bad politics.
Zanni
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 12:00 PM@poppa 'hard working people are paying for your benefits!' may have been out of context to your friend but its true. Benefits should be the minimum you need to live on and not a lifestyle just because it's possible to be paid as much money as someone in work. Immigration is still a big issue for people and how the new government ends up dealing with it over the next few years will help decide who wins the next election. Not forgetting at the current rate of increase in oil we could easily be paying £4 a litre by the next election unless they reduce the duty.
mrblackbird
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 12:00 PMI think Stewart Jackson has been a good MP who takes a lot of interest and tries to look after the interests of his constituency. However, this election result is a massive blow to the the Conservative party. Despite the effects of the credit crunch, despite immigration concerns, despite the expenses scandals, despite the backing of the Sun Sky TV GMTV, despite Sam Cam being in the blooming stages of pregnancy, the public did not trust the Conservatives to govern as an outright majority. They did not trust the tory approach to cost cutting and their small government big society (translation every man for himself) initiative. They did not trust David Cameron ("I may have gone to Eton, be a millionaire and my in laws may own a large chunk of Lincs, but hey, I am just like a normal working guy - I have Lily Allen on my IPod").
Sofedup
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 11:59 AMDGS - another one stereotyping non Tory voters. Prejudice is ugly in every form! and as a so called hardworking middle class voter, I am pleased to see a coalition - whoever it is between, because just maybe we might get some balance. I don't want all my hard earned tax money to go the richest for inheritance tax relief, but I don't mind those being paid under �10K being taken out of the tax bracket for example, and I would most certainly want PR, because I see no reason why the Tories or any Party , should be able to set up as the government with a minority vote either!
Dalek Sec
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 11:51 AMDGS - are you one of those fools who believes Labour should never get in - even if they have a huge majority, such as when Blair won? 'Hard-working middle class' - don't make me laugh - lazy managers who make their money at the expense of the hard-pressed working class more like! Most of us socialists want the poor to have more - so bring on a higher minimum wage and lock up all the tax exiles and non-doms - the real scroungers!
DGS
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 11:29 AMPositive - Labour lose around 100 seats, negative - somehow, despite 13 years of usual socialist financial incompetence, hugely bloated public sector, unchecked immigration, surrender of our sovereignty and national identity to europe, they still have a chance to form some ridiculous alliance with the other losing parties. The Lib Dems want electoral reform, I agree, lets sort out the West Lothian question, let the English people vote for their own party as Wales and Scotland have done. The spectre of another anti-british, anti-english labour government should then never need to rear it's ugly head. No doubt the immigrants, lazy good for nothing benefit cheats, anti-british eurocrats and other feckless drains on the hard working middle class majority will be breathing a sigh of relief if a left wing coalition is created by Broon.
fedupwiththephantomdeleter
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 10:29 AMFool........it shouldn't have been a problem spelling "X" as it would just be their usual signature.
Jonnyboy
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 10:02 AMAlthough I would like a blue flag fluttering over the Houses of Parliament, just remind me what ground breaking issues or effect Jackson has had on the mess that is Peterborough. Peterborough is just a means to his ends.
Lads Excellent in Training
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 09:57 AMComment removed by moderator
Sofedup
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 09:54 AMWe really need electroral reform, because the real result is that the majority of voters didn't want Jackson, but we are stuck wth him and his swimming pool still! Back to London Mr Jackson! continue raising issues about London and nothing to do with peterborough! I really wish people who voted for Jackson would look in Hansard and see how often he really supports Peterborough.... Not!
Dalek Sec
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 09:47 AMNot the local result I wanted - but welll done Mr Jackson. Nationally, I'm happy - I wanted a hung parliament and got it - and the BNP were beaten everywhere - result! Disappointed with Lib Dem showing too - and hopeful Cameron won't have enough support to repeal the hunting act - so disappointed with several plus sides in general!
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