Conservative Jason McCartney Wins Colne Valley

Jason McCartney (right) with members of his campaign team in Holmfirth last month. He's the new MP for Colne Valley.

Conservative Jason McCartney is the new MP for Colne Valley. He won a majority of 4,837 over Liberal Democat Nicola Turner, with Labour’s Debbie Abrahams beaten into third.

The Tories made a big effort to win the seat, which was their main target in West Yorkshire. For their part, the Liberal Democrats had high hopes of causing an upset, with party leader Nick Clegg visiting Marsden to campaign as recently as Sunday. But, as in much of the rest of the country, it was a disappointing night for the Lib Dems.

The campaign itself turned a bit nasty in the closing days. Mr McCartney accused the Lib Dems of “negative” tactics after its leaflets pointed out that he used to be a Lib Dem member himself, and until recently lived in Leeds. The former RAF officer and Yorkshire TV presenter hit back by saying Mrs Turner wouldn’t be a full-time MP, because she was also standing for a seat on Kirklees Council. After the result Mr McCartney used his Twitter account to say: “Wow, what a night. Many thanks to my superb team for helping turn Colne Valley blue.”

Labour, which had held the seat since 1997 with the now retired Kali Mountford, had privately admitted it would struggle to hold on with its new candidate, and so it proved. Each of the other four candidates lost their deposits.

The turnout was 69.1%, up just under 4% on the 2005 figure.

RESULT

Jason McCartney (Conservative) – 20,440

Nicola Turner (Liberal Democrat) – 15,603

Debbie Abrahams (Labour) – 14,589

Barry Fowler (BNP) – 1,893

Melanie Roberts (UKIP) – 1,163

Chas Ball (Green) – 867

Jackie Grunsell (TUSC) – 741

Majority: 4,837

Turnout: 69.1%

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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