UK's Conservative Party strikes early blow in elections
The Conservative Party's Jill Mortimer gives speech after being declared the winner in the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election at Mill House Leisure Centre in Hartlepool, England, on Friday, May 7, 2021. (Photo: AP/Owen Humphreys, PA)
LONDON: Britain's governing Conservative Party has won a special election in the town of Hartlepool in northern England, dealing a big blow to the main opposition Labour Party, which had held the parliamentary seat since its creation in 1974.
The victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's party, announced on Friday (May 7) morning, provides further evidence that the Conservatives are making ground in parts of the country that have been Labour strongholds for decades.
Over the coming couple of days, results from an array of elections in Britain will be announced. On what was dubbed Super Thursday, around 50 million voters were eligible to take part in scores of elections, some of which had been postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has left the United Kingdom with Europe’s largest coronavirus death toll.
The results of Thursday's election in Hartlepool showed the Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer winning with 15,529 votes, or nearly 52 per cent of the vote. The Labour candidate, Paul Williams, only received 8,589 votes, or around 29 per cent of the vote.
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In the 2019 general election, the Conservative Party made big inroads into Labour's “red wall” in northern England on a combination of factors, including its pro-Brexit stance. The recent success of Britain's coronavirus vaccine roll-out also appears to have given the Conservatives a shot in the arm.
Whatever lay behind the result, the loss of Hartlepool represents a stunning defeat for the Labour Party and its new leader Keir Starmer, whose left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, led the party in 2019 to its worst election performance since 1935.
Over the coming couple of days, Labour should have some results to cheer, with Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham expected to easily win second terms as the mayors of London and Manchester.
Other results to come include the elections for the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales. In addition, thousands of council members, police commissioners and other local authorities will be elected in England. No elections took place in Northern Ireland.
The result that could have the biggest UK-wide implications is the Scotland election, where the governing Scottish National Party is looking for a renewed mandate that could speed up the prospect of a second independence referendum.
