Conservatives seize Rossendale & Darwen (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Conservatives seize Rossendale & Darwen
4:40am Saturday 8th May 2010 in East Lancashire general election news
By Catherine Pye, Health reporter
JUBILANT: Jake Berry celebrates
NEW Darwen and Rossendale MP Jake Berry said people ‘had shown they are ready for change’ after the Conservatives took the seat for the first time in 18 years.
With a 7.05 per cent swing to the Tories, Mr Berry polled 19,691 votes – 4,493 ahead of outgoing Labour MP Janet Anderson.
The seat was number 71 in the list of Conservative’s hit list and Mr Berry, a 31-year-old solicitor from Cheshire, thinks he managed to grab victory because ‘people are fed up with and feel let down by 13 years of the Labour Party'.
After only two hours sleep yesterday, Mr Berry got stuck into his first day’s work by visitng the local election counts in Rossendale and Blackburn with Darwen.
He said: “It’s a fantastic feeling of elation to represent the people of Rossendale and Darwen.
“I hope and believe that I will be working under a Conservative Government though at this stage, things are still unsure.
“What we all have in mind is working in the best interests of the people, even if that ends up as part of a coalition.”
He added: “I think we have done well because people were fed up and felt let down by 13 years of the Labour Party.
“People are upset at record levels of youth unemployment and the deepest recession since the 1930s.
“People have voted for change, for a fresh start, and for youth.
“I want to reassure people that now I am MP I am committed 100 per cent to health, education and getting the economy moving again.”
Mrs Anderson, who was the constituency’s longest-serving member in its 27-year history, remained upbeat despite her loss.
She said: “Of course I’m disappointed, but it’s been a huge privilege to have served Rossendale and Darwen for 18 years.
“I always knew this would be a fight, and we have campaigned hard, but the people have spoken and it is now for Jake Berry to continue all the good work Labour has done in this constituency.
“I really hope that he will work for hard-working families and maintain the excellent Sure Start scheme.”
Other candidates made a swift exit from the count after the results were announced.
English Democrat candidate Michael Johnson said the priministerial television debates delivered ‘a fatal blow to democracy’.
He said they had “made this a three-way race and everyone else has not been given a look-in.”
Turnout at 78.24 per cent – up 10 per cent on 2005. This is not a record high, however.
That still stands at 83.1 per cent set in 1992 when Anderson narrowly defeated David Trippier by 120 votes.
Analysis
JANET Anderson looked extremely precarious in a seat that straddles two councils, neither of which is any longer Labour-controlled.
When you added the national opinion poll forecasts to controversy over her own expenses claims it would have been a big surprise if she had won.
In fact the seat she had held for 18 years now looks comfortably Conservative.
Labour cannot complain about turnout either. It was up ten per cent on 2005 but that didn’t help.
Comments(19)
blackburner
says...
6:38am Fri 7 May 10
warren2007
says...
7:00am Fri 7 May 10
past it
says...
7:24am Fri 7 May 10
Excluded
says...
7:31am Fri 7 May 10
We will have to wait and see how Jake Berry does.
Looking at the result for Tony Melia, For Darwen will be very worried about how they performed in the Council elections.
OpenyourEyesagain
says...
7:56am Fri 7 May 10
I wonder if she puts a final expenses claim in for the tissues she will need to mop up her tears.
Never mind, she will have to pay for a legitimate holiday now like the rest of us.
Happy Days to change
OpenyourEyesagain
says...
8:07am Fri 7 May 10
Has she seen the state of Darwen?
Shops cants afford to stay open, regeneration areas half finished, juvenile crime on the rise (they build sheltered housing for young people who use them as doss holes).
The roads are a disgrace, less police on streets (labour claiming PCSO's are classed as better policing on our streets!) and to top it all off claiming for a shop that David Smith uses as a hot desk to check out the Blackburn Rovers news page, it makes a mockery of the people of Darwen and their hard working past.
We might be in a mess but we are proud of the little town that's built up a bad name, hopefully under a new conservative constituency we may rebuild this shambles of a once proud town.
CAG1
says...
9:21am Fri 7 May 10
Conservatives - talk all the time about supporting married couples and increasing the support for them - no thanks (I'm single)
So overall for me there'll be no change in what my local MP does for me.
OpenyourEyesagain
says...
10:40am Fri 7 May 10
Im sick at looking at Benefit scumbags hanging round Darwen, claiming for everything they can with no intention of finding work yet they still have money for cigarettes, texting off fancy mobile phones and arranging for their weekends on the lash yet i work hard like many people and due to the cost of everything from council tax to fuel we dont have many luxuries.
The country is upside down, rewarding these leaches and punishing the hard working.
The amount of teenage mums in Darwen that are not working is a joke.
The working man needs to stand up and say we cant carry on like this.
How much longer can we carry these scumbags and benefit cheats?
moggy669
says...
12:51pm Fri 7 May 10
OpenyourEyesagain wrote:Well said.
Hopefully they will reward hard working families. Im sick at looking at Benefit scumbags hanging round Darwen, claiming for everything they can with no intention of finding work yet they still have money for cigarettes, texting off fancy mobile phones and arranging for their weekends on the lash yet i work hard like many people and due to the cost of everything from council tax to fuel we dont have many luxuries. The country is upside down, rewarding these leaches and punishing the hard working. The amount of teenage mums in Darwen that are not working is a joke. The working man needs to stand up and say we cant carry on like this. How much longer can we carry these scumbags and benefit cheats?
time.team
says...
1:01pm Fri 7 May 10
“Of course I'm disappointed, but it's been a huge privilege to have served Rossendale and Darwen for 18 years. I always knew this would be a fight, and we have campaigned hard. But the people have spoken and it is now for Jake Berry to continue all the good work Labour has done in this constituency.
I really hope that he will work for hard-working families and maintain the excellent Sure Start scheme.”
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Ouch!
Now there we have the perfect politicians response after being ousted from favour mainly because of over zealous expense claims.
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Not the ideal way to end such a long service but so often defended by loyal supporters as a supplement towards so called poor politicians salaries. It’s nothing but an insult to the average working class person who originally voted for them and not what is expected from a so called ‘Labour‘ representative. But let us all hope that this case will set an example to others and help put an end to the practice of gaining extra money by unworthy means. If future prospective politicians who are not satisfied with the stated salary please would they find another job like the rest of us rather than secretly claiming extra funds by way of expenses to make up for what they imagine to be their deserving worth!
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But please all ask yourselves, how many of us after being ousted from there job because of unfavourable circumstances be provided with a final cash ‘service’ settlement and with the best retirement salary that can ever be imagined. Changes are needed to end this regime, but our present government have done nothing constructive so far despite all of the ‘hidden’ practices that have been brought to our attention. Until this matter is totally sorted non of us will ever be able to believe anything any of them say ever again.
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Quote: “But the people have spoken and it is now for Jake Berry to continue all the good work Labour has done in this constituency“.
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Ouch!
wendar
says...
3:11pm Fri 7 May 10
disgusted tunbridge wells
says...
3:48pm Fri 7 May 10
BacupBoy
says...
4:00pm Fri 7 May 10
eavesdropper
says...
4:38pm Fri 7 May 10
BuckoTheMoose
says...
4:48pm Fri 7 May 10
CAG1 wrote:Maybe you should start thinking about what you can do for yourself.
Labour - want to increase national insurance - no thanks
Conservatives - talk all the time about supporting married couples and increasing the support for them - no thanks (I'm single)
So overall for me there'll be no change in what my local MP does for me.
Davidoff
says...
7:06pm Fri 7 May 10
.
On the other hand, I think ... well nice men in suits, who smile a lot and promise this and that appear to be all that's needed to 'swing a vote' or two for some. But ... the Conservatives not and never will be for the common, ordinary man. Oh, yes, Mr Cameron had a quick tour round that factory - bet that was a really big shock having to stay up late and no tea, biscuits or scones were available; thing to remember here is that the likes of him have never nor ever will work those kind of hours eg shifts day or night - just before the election. Let's see. Was it all planned to appear to be 'nice' and that he was for the ordinary man, woman and child in Darwen's streets?
Yes, change was coming, I think many saw that, we now have a hung parliament for example but ... how many never voted due to the most incompetent **** ups you could possibly imagine up and down the country? Then I also wonder how, exactly can the election results even be legal nor valid as thousands were unable to vote. Democracy in action in the UK?
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If nothing else the fact people could not vote due to the most profoundly pathetic excuses that should not be occuring around such a major decision making process for the whole country belies and perhaps brings a sign of things to come. People WANTED to vote they could not do so. Then to read, see and hear on the news last night police had been called in at some polling stations as a consequence. Due to a **** up at a most basic level. But hearing the police became involved or were called should be sending alarm signals out to the nation purely because we live in a democratic country but because people could not vote as is their RIGHT to do so, they were called in.
happycyclist
says...
9:02pm Fri 7 May 10
I voted Tory to oust her -but in all honesty I'd rather have her as my MP than Jake Berry. But I voted to get rid of Labour and she is Labour. It was nothing personal. I voted against her because of Straw, Mandleson, Bliar, Brown, Milburn, Harman, Blears, Smith, etc.
Thanks, Janet. You had a decent run and now it's ended.
Doug Spencer
says...
2:38pm Sat 8 May 10
hyndburnhero says...
5:38am Fri 7 May 10