There was no surprise for Ruddington voters in Thursday’s General Election when Conservative heavyweight Kenneth Clarke easily retained his Rushcliffe seat – and so remains our representative at Westminster.
He secured over half the vote – with a similar share to the 2015 General Election. This had always seemed a foregone conclusion once the former cabinet minister and now “Father of the House” announced that he would be standing as our MP again – after holding this safe Tory seat for the last 47 years.
In fact, Rushcliffe has been mostly a Conservative stronghold since 1950. (Labour regained it for just four years in 1966 but then Mr Clarke won it back for the Tories.) However it is likely to be Ken’s last term in The Commons. He has previously stated that he would have retired if the last parliament had run its full term. Last night he also referred to “…spending my last five years…” during an interview on the BBC’s Election Night Special.
Here are the full results for Rushcliffe announced in the early hours of this morning:
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1st 51.68% Kenneth Clarke (Conservative): 30,223 votes (ELECTED)
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2nd 37.99% David Mellen (Labour): 22,213 votes
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3rd 4.72% Jayne Phoenix (Liberal Democrat): 2,759 votes
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4th 2.78% George Mallender (Green Party): 1,626 votes
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5th 2.55% Matthew Faithfull (UK Independence Party): 1,490 votes
A total of 58,477 people cast their vote in our constituency – that’s 78.24% of those eligible. Out of those 157 ballot papers were rejected due to being spoiled, un-marked or because the elector voted for more than one candidate!
David Mellen’s share of the vote for Labour increased by 11.7% over the 2015 General Election – seemingly at the expense of UKIP and The Greens who both dropped votes and fell below the Lib Dems in Rushcliffe.
In the country as a whole, however, Mr Clarke’s party will now face a rough ride ahead. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn has fared better across the UK than expected. At 5.54am today it became clear that Theresa May’s gamble to hold a snap election had NOT paid off – as the Tories lost their parliamentary majority. The Conservatives made gains from the SNP in Scotland but lost seats in England and Wales to Labour and to the Liberal Democrats, despite seeing their vote share rise. So the UK will once again have a hung parliament – meaning that the government will have to rely on support from one or more other parties to get their legislation through.
UPDATE: 3.44pm: 9.6.17
The final UK election results:-
Conservative 318 seats: -12, 42.45% vote share, +5.52%
Labour Party 262 seats: +32, 39.99% vote share, +9.54%
Scottish National Party 35 seats: -19, 3.04% vote share, -1.7%
Liberal Democrats 12 seats: +3, 7.36% vote share, -0.51%
UK Independence Party 0 seats: 0, 1.85% vote share, -10.79%
Green Party 1 seat: 0, 1.63% vote share, +2.14%
Democratic Unionist Party 10 seats: +2, 0.91% vote share, +0.31%
Sinn Féin 7 seats: +3, 0.74% vote share, +0.17%
Plaid Cymru 4 seats: +1, 0.51% vote share, -0.08%
Independents 1 seat: -4, 0.45% vote share, +0.13%
Ulster Unionist Party 0 seats: -2, 0.26% vote share, -0.11%
Social Democratic & Labour Party 0 seats: -3, 0.3% vote share, -0.03%
Others 0 seats: 0, 0.52% vote share, -0.3%
It is reported that Theresa May intends to continue as Conservative leader and UK Prime Minister. She is now seeking to form a government of “certainty” with the backing of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party which has won 10 seats. Although The Liberal Democrats have increased their representation in parliament to 12 seats they have said they are not prepared to consider another coalition with the Tories.
Other stories and statistics from the BBC about the 2017 UK General Election can be found >>HERE<<.
