Victory for Kate Green in Stretford and Urmston was met by a raucous cheers from the election floor by attending Labour supporters on a night when the party suffered significant losses.
Green retained her seat in Stretford & Urmston for Labour at the election, accruing nearly twice the number of votes of her closest competitor.
She told MM: “I’m very pleased to be re-elected in Stretford & Urmston and to have increased the majority in the share of the vote.”
Lisa Cooke of the Conservatives came in second with 12,916 votes to Green’s 24,601 in a constituency where two thirds of voters turned out.
Discussing the Labour campaign in the early hours of the morning, Green explained what it had been all about.
She said: “I think that the Labour Party’s national campaign abut greater equality, about a better future for our young people, is exactly what I would regard as my top priorities.
“I don’t think those are priorities that anybody in Stretford and Urmston disagreed with.”
On her own campaign, Green passionately spoke of her constituents fears for the future.
“The things that came up on the doorstep again and again, whether I was talking to young people, parents, or grandparents, they were all talking about their hopes and concerns for the next generation.
“Concerns that they wouldn’t be able to get a good education, or a good job, a home of their own to start their own family.”
She also told us that her local campaign was reflected in the national campaign for Labour, but stated that there was still work to be done.
“Those were the issues on which Labour fought the election national as well as locally, and those are the issues I expect to go on campaigning on when I return to parliament next week.
“I don’t think the problems and the fears that people had have gone away.”
The Stretford and Urmston seat saw a turn-out of 67%, with Labour winning just over half of the votes.
Image courtesy of the Labour Party, with thanks.