‘We’ll keep taking the Tories to task,’ says Oxford's Labour Party

Until the release of a BBC exit poll at 10pm on Thursday, national pollsters predicted that the two major parties were neck-and-neck and heading for a hung Parliament.

But within hours it became clear that Labour had failed to win a string of key marginal constituencies and even its campaign leader Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, had lost his seat in Scotland.

The Conservatives won 331 seats, with a majority of 12, and Labour 232, prompting its leader Ed Miliband to resign on Friday.

Bucking the national trend in Oxford East, incumbent Labour candidate Andrew Smith increased his majority from 4,581 in 2010 to 15,280 this year and remained the only non-Tory MP in Oxfordshire.

 John Howell, Nicola Blackwood and Ed Vaizey are joined by party officials to celebrate their victories in the General Election

Yesterday Oxford City Council Labour leader Bob Price said he had “no idea” why the polls were wrong.

He said: “On the doorstep in Oxford we had a very enthusiastic response to Labour’s campaign.

“That was reflected in the Oxford East result, but when I saw the exit poll at 10pm it was a shock and the news only got worse after that.

“I have no idea why other parts of the country did not have the same support for us, but that is something the party will consider.”

Bob Price

Mr Price warned policies unveiled by the Tories during the election would put extra pressure on the city. He said extending the right to buy scheme, introduced under Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s, to housing association tenants would “further exacerbate” Oxford’s chronic housing shortage.

The policy allows tenants of council homes to buy their property if they have lived there for five years or more.

And he added a commitment by the Government to further reduce welfare spending by £12bn would hit families in the city.

Mr Price said: “We have a high proportion of people on low pay and those dependent on social security, so further cuts will increase poverty.

“That is something we are very concerned about.

“But we will continue to seek assurances that money committed for schemes like the Western Conveyance [flood alleviation scheme] are carried through, as well as infrastructure projects.”

Conservative leader of Oxfordshire County Council Ian Hudspeth said his party’s victory was a “positive result” and that his authority would continue to bid for funding for the county.

Mr Hudspeth said: “We have been very successful over the last five years in bids for funding and will continue to be mindful about what else we can get.”

He added that through the tri-county alliance Oxfordshire established with Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire last year, leaders would seek devolved spending powers and longer budget agreements.

“It is clear that this is on the agenda for other places like Scotland and Manchester”, he said.

“We will begin dialogue with the Government about what it is prepared to give us.”

Parties pledge defeated candidates will return stronger and wiser for future elections

ELECTION agents for defeated General Election candidates across Oxford have said they are already preparing for future elections

Agents for major parties that missed out on the top spot in the city’s two constituencies have all said they were happy with the results despite their candidates failing to make it to the Commons.

Members of the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and UKIP all said they were placed in a stronger position for the 2020 election. 

 Layla Moran

Neil Fawcett was the agent for Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Oxford West and Abingdon, which returned Conservative MP Nicola Blackwood with a margin of almost 10,000 votes. 

But Mr Fawcett said: “We ran a cracking campaign. We just lost out because of the national swing. That overwhelmed the very strong campaign we had run to get Layla elected.

“We’ve built up a very strong team behind our campaign. We will carry on taking the Tories to task when they get things wrong.”

The Lib Dems suffered a more dramatic decline in Oxford East, where they dropped from second place with 17,357 votes in 2010 to fourth place with 5,453 this year.

Candidate Alasdair Murray was drafted in at short notice in March after Mark Mann stepped down due to family reasons. Chairman and campaign organiser for Oxford East Liberal Democrats Conor McKenzie said: “It is disappointing but it is a chance to rebuild, which is good.

“It was really unfortunate that Mark had to step down but Alistair is fantastic and should be an MP. The aim is to start from the Oxford City Council elections in a year’s time.”

In Oxford East the Green Party candidate Ann Duncan came third, behind returning Labour MP Andrew Smith and Conservative candidate Melanie Magee. 

The Green Party’s agent Matt Ledbury said: “In Oxford East we went from 2.4 per cent to 11.6 per cent of the votes, which is the biggest increase in votes of any candidate.

“It’s given us a good basis to keep going forward and it’s shown the potential we have.”
Labour’s Andrew Smith won Oxford East and the party’s candidate, Sally Copley, came third in the Oxford West and Abingdon race, with 7,274 votes. 

Her agent Alex Hollingsworth said: “As the third placed party in a marginal seat we only had a fraction of the resources that others had, but we still increased our vote significantly.” 

UKIP candidate Alan Harris came in fourth, with nearly 4,000 votes. He said: “2020 is my ultimate goal. This is what we have been planning for all along.  2020 will be Ukip’s year.”

Turnout at the polling stations up by 2%

VOTERS have been praised for turning out to cast their ballots as turnout at the General Election went up by almost two per cent.

Across the county 70.5 per cent of people eligible to vote went to the polls, up from 68.7 per cent in 2010.

In March, the Oxford Mail led a campaign to get more people to register so they were able to vote and also to encourage them to go out and do so.

Terry Roper

The campaign was backed by army veteran Terry Roper, who said people should not forget the sacrifice our armed forces made so we had the right to vote.

The chairman of the Oxford branch of the Royal Green Jackets Association said: “I am very pleased turnout has gone up.

“I would like to think that the VE Day celebrations might have made a difference.

“I would like to think that the remembrance about fighting for democracy did make a difference, especially among young people who do not learn about the war in school.

“If people passionately believe in a particular ideology they should go out and vote for it, but people who do not have that motivation should be encouraged.”

Brenda Walton

The Oxford Mail campaign was also supported by lifelong voter Brenda Walton from Blackbird Leys.

The 70-year-old said: “I was pleased to see that turnout was up, I think it was good. I was very, very pleased with the turnout going up and I was also pleased that Andrew Smith’s majority went up.”

Dr Peter Harbour

Oxford Mail voters’ panel member Dr Peter Harbour, who lives in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, said he was pleased turnout was up but felt the campaign had been dull.

He said: “I think the whole thing was far too bland.

“The parties were all focusing on a small number of issues and not the broader spectrum.

“Labour did not create a decent rebuttal to the story that they spent all the money.

“There have been a lot of half-truths and Labour was very weak in not rebutting those.”

“I think that is very sad.”

Candidates lose more than just votes

THE General Election cost many people their pride, but some of Oxfordshire’s candidates were literally out of pocket after Thursday’s voting. 

Fifteen candidates in Oxfordshire’s six constituencies lost their deposits, giving the Treasury a total of £7,500. 

In order to stand, candidates must pay £500, which they do not get back unless they get at least five per cent of the total votes cast in their constituency. 

The Green Party’s Oxford West and Abingdon candidate Larry Sanders and Banbury candidate Ian Middleton both lost their deposits.

National Health Action also saw two candidates lose their deposits; Clive Peedell in Witney and Roseanne Edwards in Banbury.

The worst performance of the night in terms of votes won came in re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency Witney, where independent candidate Nathan Handley won just 12 votes.

Witney saw a total of seven candidates lose their money, including Colin Bex from the Wessex Regionalists, Deek Jackson from the Land Party and Bobby Smith, who dressed as Elmo for the count. 

In Oxford East, independent candidate Chaka Artwell lost out, along with Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Mad Hatter and Kevin Parkin from the Socialist Party.

A total of 1,565 candidates lost their deposit across the UK, meaning the Government will get a total of £782,500.