Labour win Barnsley by-election

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • xman
    Admin
    • Sep 2006
    • 24007

    Labour win Barnsley by-election

    3 March 2011 Last updated at 20:47 ET Labour's Dan Jarvis has won the Barnsley Central by-election, while the Lib Dems slipped to sixth in the South Yorkshire seat.

    UKIP came second, with the Tories in third, the BNP in fourth and independent Tony Devoy in fifth.

    The turnout in the by-election was 36.5%, compared with 56.4% at the last General Election.

    The contest was prompted by the resignation of former Labour MP Eric Illsley over fiddling his expenses.

    Labour took 60.8% of the vote, UKIP's Jane Collins 12.19%, the Conservatives' James Hockney 8.25%, the BNP's Enis Dalton 6.04%, Independent Tony Devoy 5.23% and the Liberal Democrats' Dominic Carman 4.18%.

    Mr Carman lost his deposit. He said: "The voters here in Barnsley have given me and the Liberal Democrats a kicking. We can take it."

    Mr Jarvis, a former soldier who spent 15 years in the Parachute Regiment, said the people of Barnsley Central were sending the "strongest possible message" to David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

    "Your reckless policies, your broken promises and unfair cuts are letting our country down," he said.

    The by-election is only the second since the coalition government took power last May, the other being January's contest for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

    At the general election Illsley held Barnsley Central with a majority of just over 11,000 and 47% of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats in second place, six votes ahead of the Conservatives.

    But the MP resigned his seat after pleading guilty to falsely claiming £14,000 in parliamentary expenses. He was later jailed for a year.

    BBC political reporter Robin Brant said the result was humiliating for Nick Clegg who would see it as a first sign of the battering his party could expect in some parts of the country as the Coalition's cuts start to bite.





    Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feeds | Amazon WordPress Plugin
Working...
X