Election Round Up

Marlene Guest

Last night was a busy night with parliamentary by election results in Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Croydon North.

In Rotherham, a by election was called following the resignation of Labour MP Denis Macshane.

Rotherham is normally a safe Labour seat but following the resignation of Macshane plus the cover-up of child sexual exploitation and the UKIP fostering scandal it was always going to be a tough task to retain the seat. In the end Labour comfortably held the seat, albeit with a reduced majority, however the battle for 2nd and 3rd was far more interesting. 

UKIP’s Jane Collins finished in a strong second place with the BNP’s Marlene Guest narrowly scraping into 3rd place. The English Democrats, who hoped they would fair well here only managed a poor 6th place.
Most amusing of all was the EDL’s candidate Clint Bristow who finished in last place with just 29 votes which equals to a tiny 0.14%.

Nick Griffin has been crowing on Twitter about the BNP’s 3rd place, claiming they are back in the game. But let’s look closely at the figures.
Yes the BNP finished in a respectable 3rd place but their overall percentage was down nearly 2% on their previous election result here. The BNP prospered from the fact that the Tory and Lib Dem vote collapsed.

Rotherham results in full:

• Sarah Champion (Labour) 9,866 (46.25%, +1.62%)
• Jane Collins (UKIP) 4,648 (21.79%, +15.87%)
• Marlene Guest (BNP) 1,804 (8.46%, -1.96%)
• Yvonne Ridley (Respect) 1,778 (8.34%)
• Simon Wilson (Conservative) 1,157 (5.42%, -11.32%)
• David Wildgoose (English Democrat) 703 (3.30%)
• Simon Copley (Independent) 582 (2.73%, -3.58%)
• Michael Beckett (Liberal Democrat) 451 (2.11%, -13.87%)
• Ralph Dyson (TUSC) 261 (1.22%)
• Paul Dickson (Independent) 51 (0.24%)
• Clint Bristow (Independent) 29 (0.14%)
• Labour majority 5,218 (24.46%)
• 7.13% swing Labour to UKIP
• Turnout: 21,330 (33.63%, -25.37%)

Middlesbrough and Croydon North were far more what we had come to expect from the far right…. abject failure.

In Middlesbrough the BNP’s Peter Foreman finished in 6th place and saw their vote plummet nearly 4% on their previous result here. The National Front faired little better in Croydon North with the veteran anti Semite Richard Edmonds finishing in 8th place with a miserly 0.66% of the vote.

Middlesbrough results in full:

• Andy McDonald (Labour) 10,201 (60.48%, +14.60%)
• Richard Elvin (UKIP) 1,990 (11.80%, +8.10%)
• George Selmer (Liberal Democrat) 1,672 (9.91%, -10.00%)
• Ben Houchen (Conservative) 1,063 (6.30%, -12.48%)
• Imdad Hussain (Peace) 1,060 (6.28%)
• Peter Foreman (BNP) 328 (1.94%, -3.90%)
• John Malcolm (TUSC) 277 (1.64%)
• Mark Heslehurst (Independent) 275 (1.63%)
• Labour majority: 8,211 (48.68%)
• 3.25% swing UKIP to Lab
• Turnout: 16,866 (25.91%, -25.44%)

Croydon North results in full:

• Steve Reed (Labour) 15,898 (64.71%, +8.69%)
• Andy Stranack (Conservative) 4,137 (16.84%, -7.28%)
• Winston McKenzie (UKIP) 1,400 (5.70%, +3.97%)
• Marisha Ray (Liberal Democrat) 860 (3.50%, -10.48%)
• Shasha Islam Khan (Green) 855 (3.48%, +1.51%)
• Lee Jasper (Respect) 707 (2.88%, +2.35%)
• Stephen Hammond (Christian Peoples Alliance) 192 (0.78%)
• Richard Edmonds (National Front) 161 (0.66%)
• Ben Stevenson (Communist) 119 (0.48%, +0.17%)
• John Cartwright (Loony) 110 (0.45%)
• Simon Lane (9/11 Was an Inside Job) 66 (0.27%)
• Robin Smith (Young People’s) 63 (0.26%)
• Labour majority: 11,761 (47.87%)
• 7.99% swing Conservative to Labour
• Turnout: 24,568 (26.4%, -34.25%)