After a turbulent night for the Labour party nationally, there was celebration locally for MP Kate Green as she retained her seat in Stretford and Urmston.
The seat has been a red sway since the 1990s and shortly before 4am it was announced that the constituency was a Labour hold with Ms Green obtaining 30,195 votes which was equivalent to 60.3% of the vote share.
Ms Green said: “It’s an absolute honour to have been re-elected by the voters of Stretford and Urmston and I want to thank you for putting your trust in me to represent you in parliament.”
Despite the positive locally for Ms Green, attention quickly turned to the national picture.
“I wish I could say too it has been a good night for the rest of my party in the rest of the country, I’m devastated to see good colleagues lose their seats and I must say I fear for the direction our country will now take.”
Here is the moment @KateGreenSU was announced as the winner of the #Stretford and #Urmston seat!#mmelection19 | #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/GO8NiqLFqF
— Nick (@NJP180791) December 13, 2019
Winning by a majority of 16,417, the Labour parties nearest rival was the Conservative candidate Mussadak Mirza who received 13,778 votes.
The Conservative candidate kept things short and sweet, thanking everybody who voted for him, before turning to the national picture.
“We’ve had a really good night as a party,” he said.
They weren’t the only party with a new candidate standing, as both the Liberal Democrats and the Greens had somebody new.
Anna Corina Fryer of the Liberal Democrats came third, receiving 2969 votes, Gary Powell of the Brexit Party came fourth notching up 1768 votes and Jane Frances Leicester of the Green party completed the vote with 1357. The seat is normally contested by six parties but was reduced to five this time around, with the Christian Party not participating.
After the first December general election for almost 100 years and perhaps the biggest election of many of our lifetime, did the weather play a part in people not turning out?
In Stretford and Urmston there was a slight decrease in the number of people turning out, as 69.4% of the population turned out compared to 70.1% in 2017 a deficit of 0.7%, with Ms Green praising all parties fighting for votes in what she described as “filthy weather.”
Despite the Labour party retaining the Stretford and Urmston seat, they have a huge rebuilding job on their hands as they were projected to lose 86 seats in the early exit poll, sinking to one of their worst ever election results.
Ms Green is up for the fight though, vowing that she will only have the best interests of the people of Stretford and Urmston but the country as a whole.
“My job in parliament will be to hold the new government to account in the best interests of the people I represent here [Stretford and Urmston] and indeed as a member of the British parliament the people of this country.”
