Barbara Keeley retained her seat in Worsley and Eccles South for the Labour Party, winning in her fourth consecutive General Election.
Keeley received 20,446 votes which is over 5,000 less than she received in 2017, while the Conservative candidate Arnold Saunders clawed back a large part of the Labour majority with 17,345 votes.
Seamus Martin and the Brexit Party received the third most votes and overtook the Liberal Democrats from the last election, who were this time led by student Joe Johnson-Tod.
Daniel Towers gained 1,300 votes for the Green Party, improving on the 842 votes that Tom Dylan gained last time around.
Since the birth of Worsley as a constituency in 1983 when Terry Lewis held the seat, and its evolution into Worsley and Eccles South in 2010, Labour have never lost this constituency.
Barbara Keeley is the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health and Social Care and she expressed her pride at her victory while outlining the key policies that she felt led to the successful retaining of her seat.
She told MM: “It is a real honour. This is the third election in a short number of years, but I am really pleased to be able to carry on the work I am doing with people in this constituency.
“I think people are deeply concerned about the NHS and I think the notion of privatisation and a deal with Trump about issues of Brexit is a big thing to people. People want the NHS protected.
“I think people are as concerned as they normally are about the NHS, about policing, about education and about everything that affects them and their families.
“The social care crisis is very important to millions of people in this country who need proper social care and they’re not getting it at the moment.”
Arnold Saunders is a freelance Rabbi and alongside being the Conservative Party candidate, he is a Salford City councillor for Kersal, a position he has held since 2017.
Having cut the Labour share of 57% from the last election to 45% this time around, Saunders believed his constituency had been persuaded by the Prime Minister’s campaign rhetoric.
He told MM: “I was very pleased, I am really proud of my team and Boris and CC HQ who’s victory this is this evening for the Conservative Party.
“At the end of the day that’s the most important thing for me that the Conservative Party have got back in for five years.
“I think people took to Boris’ message of getting Brexit done, and then ‘unleashing Britain’s potential’. Interestingly if you look at the Brexit Party vote, it is slightly more than the Labour majority.”
Seamus Martin led the Brexit Party to third place in this count with 3,224 votes. In the 2015 General Election, Martin represented UKIP in Bury South.
Martin believed the Brexit Party campaign was hampered by Boris Johnson’s refusal to allow for a larger representation of the Brexit Party across the United Kingdom, he made clear what he would like from the Brexit process.
This was the moment Barbara Keeley won yet again in Worsley and Eccles South #mmelection19 pic.twitter.com/dzqy6vbTWk
— Matthew Chivers (@mgchivers) December 13, 2019
He told MM: “My great concern with his deal is a bogus Brexit and I’m greatly concerned that so many people have had the wool pulled over their eyes.
“We in the Brexit Party want a clean-break Brexit and to have sensible and mutually beneficial sector-based mini-deals with the EU.
“We will be on the outside, we will be a rule taker. We are going to be under the cosh for years to come if Johnson’s deal goes through as is.”
