Heywood & Middleton Election 2017 - Live Commentary - Liz McInnes retains her seat

Liz McInnes - Labour 26,578
Christopher Clarkson - Conservative 18,961
Lee Seville - UKIP 3,239
Bill Winlow  - Liberal Democrat 1,087

02.05 Liz McInnes has retained her seat in Heywood & Middleton. The Conservatives increased their vote to over 18,000. However, the Labour increased their majority to 7,617.

01.50 We are expecting a result to be announced in the next 15 minutes.

01.40 Patricia Sullivan, agent for Conservative candidate Christopher Clarkson said:
"I think we’ve definitely increased our votes from last year, and it could be a close call, but I’m not sure it’s close enough to worry the Labour Party. We’ve done well in Middleton South and we’ve done well in places that we didn’t expect to get many votes from. I think one of the policies that has helped increase our votes was Brexit."

 

Former Conservative Councillor Jane Gartside observes the count in Bamford ward

01.20 UKIP candidate Lee Seville said: "I’m definitely a little bit more optimistic than I was earlier in the night that I won’t lose the deposit now, so things aren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be. But looking round, I’m trying to see how far we’ve fallen and I think we’re in a definite third place, so we’re not totally dead in the water. UKIP are certainly going to remain in Rochdale and Heywood & Middleton.

I think the biggest problem we have as a party is the number of people willing to help the campaign and take part. Labour is a machine, they have so many members out there being proactive and no other party can touch them. But I think after this is done, I’m going to send letters out to members of the party, encouraging them to be more proactive, because I don’t think the next General Election is more than 6 months down the line with the way things are going."

01.05 Councillor Aasim Rashid said: "We've run a well organised campaign. The Labour Party has a proven record working for the working class. Local people in Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale are coming back to Labour and rejecting UKIP’s negative politics. They are rejecting Tory austerity as well."

At the last General Election in 2015, Labour won the seat with 20,926 votes with a majority of 5,299. The total number of votes cast in that year was 48,538.

At the 2014 by-election, following the death of Jim Dobbin Labour won the seat with 11,633 votes with a majority of 617. The total number of votes cast in the by-election was 28,472.

00.30 The turnout has been announced as 62.5%. The count will now begin.

The turnout at the last General Election in 2015 for the constituency was 60% and in the 2014 by-election the turnout was 36%.

00.20 Most counting stations have finished verifying the votes from their ward. We will soon know the turnout here.

00.05 Steve Rumbelow, Rochdale Council Chief Executive and Acting Returning Officer said: 
"The count is going well, it’s been fairly smooth so far and we’re not too far from knowing the turnout figures. The polling stations were fairly quiet this morning but we got a bigger surge in the afternoon. However, there is still quite a way to go here."

23.35 Liz McInnes, the Labour candidate has arrived at the count. She said: "I think it’s been a brilliant campaign. We’ve worked really, really hard. I’ve had a fantastic team of volunteers we couldn’t have done any more and it looks like we’ve got a good result."

23.30 Labour Councillor Liam O'Rourke said: "The UKIP vote in Heywood & Middleton has collapsed and the Lib Dems are nowhere. We are cautiously confident. We have run a strong, positive campaign and focussed on the Labour manifesto." 

23.20 Representatives of Labour, UKIP and the Conservatives are observing the count. We are not aware of any local Liberal Democrat members here yet.

23.10 All the ballot boxes have arrived at the count and the postal votes have all been verified.

23.00 UKIP candidate Lee Seville said: "The campaign was slow starting but with a quick finish, when we’d managed to get the leaflets out. But it looks like it’s a two-horse race from where I’m standing. It looks like we may even lose our deposit.

I do enjoy campaigning, getting about, I always do. I make my own leaflets and stuff, that’s what I’ve been doing. The first campaign I was very nervous, but the second one I enjoyed. I got some good points over and got the policies out from the manifesto, so yeah I really enjoyed that."

22.50 Conservative candidate Christopher Clarkson said: "I think we’ve had a strong campaign in the short space of time that we’ve had. Obviously, the hardest part was trying to get round to as many people as we could, listening to their concerns and trying to relate that to what we were proposing to do for the country. Obviously, a lot of people are very concerned about Brexit and getting that right, but we had a good strong message on that.

I’ve actually really enjoyed standing as a candidate, I mean this isn’t my first time as a candidate but I have to say that the Conservative Association in Heywood and Middleton have been phenomenal. They are really good, hard-working people, very dedicated and they gave me such a warm welcome. It’s been wonderful talking to so many people and everyone I’ve spoken to has been nice. Even if they’re not voting for me, they’ve been really good, honest people who actually wanted to talk about what’s going on."

22.40 Verification is underway in all wards.

22.30 Ballot boxes are still arriving from across the constituency.

22.10 Votes from the ballot boxes that have arrived are being verified by counters.

22.05 Party members are beginning to arrive. Candidates Chris Clarkson (Conservative) and Lee Seville (UKIP) and their agents are here.

10.01pm The polls have closed and the first ballot box is brought through from the polling station here in the Sports Village.

The candidates in today's election are:

• Christopher Clarkson - Conservative
• Liz McInnes - Labour
• Lee Seville - UKIP
• Bill Winlow - Liberal Democrat

View the candidates pitches at:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/election-summary/28/heywood-and-middleton-general-election-2017