Labour sweeps up in Newcastle elections

May 08, 2015 by George Welch in News

The Labour Party has won North and South Jesmond ward council seats, and held its three constituencies in Newcastle upon-Tyne following huge leads in last night’s General Election results.

In local elections, held at the same time as the General Election, In North Jesmond, Labour’s Dan Perry narrowly defeated the incumbent, Liberal Democrat Gerry Keating, who had won a by-election held in August 2014.

Kerry Allibhai led Labour to victory, replacing David Hardman as the party’s representative in South Jesmond, winning 40% of the vote. The Conservative candidate won 20% of the votes cast, while the Liberal Democrat candidate was pushed into fourth place.

Speaking immediately after his defeat, outgoing councillor Keating told JesmondLocal: “My target was to get 1,300 votes and I thought, a week ago, that that would win by about 400 votes. I got 1,300 votes. Trouble is I then realised there’s a thousand students that had been added to the electoral roll and that would make things very difficult for me…and it did”.

Keating’s defeat was the last result of the evening confirming a Labour whitewash of Newcastle parliamentary seats and the local Jesmond wards.

Nick Brown (Newcastle East), Chi Onwurah (Newcastle Central) and Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle North) all reclaimed their parliamentary seats in a result that will fail to surprise many. Brown claimed 49.4% of the vote, while Onwurah and McKinnell declared at 55% and 46% respectively.

Brown, who has been Newcastle East’s Westminster representative since 1983, was the first result of the night, increasing his Labour majority in Newcastle East from 45% to 49.4%. He told JesmondLocal “I’m delighted with the result – it’s a strengthening of the Labour position here”.

“I make every effort to get round Jesmond, meet the local community groups and join in with what is a very special and distinct community”.

Meanwhile, Onwurah’s majority in Newcastle Central increased 10% and McKinnell’s increased by 6.1%.

A common theme throughout the three constituencies, in addition to Labour’s dominance, was the decline of the Liberal Democrats. The junior party in the previous coalition government was down 22% in Newcastle East, 18% in Newcastle Central and 33% in Newcastle North.

UKIP made significant gains in the Newcastle constituencies, winning 17,571 popular votes, a substantial increase on the 2010 General Elections tally of 2,039.

Turn out for the Newcastle General Election was 63%, 2% lower than the national average in 2010.

On a night where Labour didn’t perform to the level they had expected nationally, they did, as usual, dominate in the north east.

Results in full:

NEWCASTLE NORTH

Labour 20,689

Conservative 10,536

UKIP 7,447

Liberal Democrats 4,366

Green 1,515

North East Party 338

NEWCASTLE CENTRAL

Labour 19,301