Abrahams Promises To Fight Cuts

Debbie Abrahams MP arrives at the Ram's Head in Denshaw today, with her husband John and daughter Dawn.

Our new MP Debbie Abrahams said today that protecting public services would be one of her main priorities during her first weeks and months in the job. Hours after her victory in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, the newest Labour MP said the result hadn’t yet completely sunk in, and added that she was “absolutely delighted” to have won.

Mrs Abrahams defeated her main rival, Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins, by a better than expected margin of 3,558 votes. Conservative Kashif Ali was well back in third place when the ballots were counted last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham.

Debbie Abrahams MP at the Ram's Head today.

Speaking to Saddleworth News this afternoon at the Ram’s Head in Denshaw, not too far from her home in Newhey, Mrs Abrahams said: “It’s a real honour that’s been bestowed on me and I’m taking that very, very seriously. It is important that the whole constituency is represented, it is very diverse. And I intend to do that. It is about making sure that I represent all of Oldham East and Saddleworth, and not Westminster.”

When asked what her aims would be for her early weeks as our MP, Mrs Abrahams said: “I think it’s very important that we’re protecting our public services which are under huge threat. This is one of the reasons I think, in terms of the broken promises, why we had such a good response.”

She went on: “The electorate wanted to send a very clear message to this government, so obviously (I’ll be) fighting against the unwarranted cuts that are being announced. Making sure for example that on police, I’ll fight very strongly against the 1,400 police being axed as well as police stations being closed.”

Mrs Abrahams continued: “Making sure that our young people have appropriate facilities, but also opportunities in education and training and employment, that are being kicked away at the moment. So I’ll fight very hard for them.”

We’ve now got a remarkably mixed political picture, with a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition at Westminster, a Lib Dem/Conservative coalition running Oldham Council, as well as a Labour MP. I asked Mrs Abrahams whether she’d be prepared to work with politicians from other parties to do the right thing by local people.

Debbie Abrahams MP chats to her husband John and daughter Dawn at the Ram's Head in Denshaw this afternoon.

She said: “I will make sure that is a job that I focus on, it’s very important that we do that. In terms of making sure that the issues are focused on, that’s my prime concern.”

And on her own party’s fortunes, Mrs Abrahams commented: “We’re not complacent at all. This is the first step on a long road to recovery for the Labour party. I will make sure that we’re constantly in contact and identifying issues and needs from our constituents.”

She concluded by saying: “Thank you very much to everyone that voted for me, I really am very honoured.” She’s likely to travel to Westminster early next week, and could hold her first constituency surgery as soon as the following weekend.

Mrs Abrahams said she’d only managed to get two hours of sleep after the count last night, but had still found time this morning to go for a run! She was joined at the Ram’s Head today for a quiet celebratory coffee by her husband John, and Dawn, one of their two daughters.

You can listen to the interview in full here.

To read about election night as it happened click here, a round-up of the night’s events including another interview with Mrs Abrahams, as well as reaction from Elwyn Watkins and Kashif Ali is here, and a by-election special edition of Saddleworth News TV can be watched here.

The full archive of articles about the by-election from Saddleworth News can be accessed here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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