Labour hold in Halifax with a significantly increased majority

HalifaxHolly Lynch (Labour) 25,507Chris Pearson (Conservative) 20,131Mark Weedon (UKIP) 1,568James Baker (Liberal Democrats) 1,070
General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Holly Lynch.General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Holly Lynch.
General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Holly Lynch.

After being one of the most hotly contested seats in the country, Labour retains its seat in Halifax with a much increased majority.

The result was called at 4am this morning (Friday) and many were eager to see if Labour could hold onto the seat, as there was such a small majority in 2015.

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After a tight race, Labour MP Holly Lynch beat out the other candidates to win the seat with a 5,376 majority, 4,948 more than two years ago.

General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.
General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.

Speaking after her victory she said: “I feel really estatic. It was quite a defensive campaign going into this general election but we’re really pleased that we managed to hold the seat and be such an increased majority.

“It just gives me now a mandate to keep working on the campaigns I feel really strongly about, standing up for the people of Halifax, seeing what this Parliament going to bring over the next 48 hours.

“It seems like we are in hung-parliament territory so it’s quite exciting times to see what comes of that now.”

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After seven weeks of campaigning, Ms Lynch is keen to get back to working on her big campaigns. But what are her plans?

Election count at North Bridge Leisure CentreElection count at North Bridge Leisure Centre
Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre

“We’re doing lots of work on protecting our emergency service workers whether that’s the number or whether that’s from assaults and some of the challenged that they’re facing going about their business,” she said.

“We’ve really been trying to deliver law changes to make sure that they do their work so that they’re safe and the communities are safe, that’s going to be one of my big priorities.”

The voter turnout had increased this year with 5.8 per cent more people taking the trip to vote than in 2015.

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Halifax has been a Labour held seat since 1987, but it was thought that with such as low majority in the election two years ago that the Conservatives could take it.

General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.
General Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax. Chris Pearson and Mark Weedon.

Conservative candidate Chris Pearson thinks that whatever the final outcome is, strong leadership is key. He said: “Going forward, whatever the final result is for the country, we need to make sure that the country’s got a strong leadership and that stability because otherwise it’s ordinary, working class people, people here in Halifax and throughout the country that if the big issues are dealt with.”

But the campaigning was not in vain as Mr Pearson expressed how he was humbled by the support over the last seven weeks since the election was called.

He said: “We had a massive number of people who did support us here in Halifax, obviously in the end it wasn’t just quite enough.

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“I’m really pleased for my colleague Craig in the Calder Valley in our neighbouring constituency, he’s retained his seat despite a strong challenge which is really good for Calderdale that we’ve got a strong Conservative prescence.”

Election count at North Bridge Leisure CentreElection count at North Bridge Leisure Centre
Election count at North Bridge Leisure Centre

Speaking earlier in the evening, Halifax UKIP candidate Mark Weedon said: “We’ve worked as hard as we could, we’ve got a small team there’s only two of us so we’ve been targeting Facebook, getting leaflets out, talking to people, we tried our best.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate was unavailable for a comment.