Following our profiles of three candidates to watch out for at last week’s General Election, Newington's Toby North looks at how our tips fared, and picks three unexpected winners who could go on to make an impression in the new Parliament.
Ones to watch: How did they fair?
Julian Huppert- Liberal Democrat candidate for Cambridge. Labour Hold.
Former Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge (2010-2015) Julian Huppert was hoping to ride a wave of Brexit discontent back to the Palace of Westminster on 8th June, standing in a seat where 73.8% of voters opted to Remain in last year’s European Referendum. Instead, the Lib Dem Brexit bounce did not materialise here, with Labour incumbent and Shadow Transport Minister Daniel Zeichner increasing his majority from a wafer-thin 599 to a comfortable 12,661 votes. Jeremy Corbyn’s much-discussed appeal among first time and young voters proved pivotal in this seat with a large student population, which saw overall turnout grow from 62.1% in 2015 to 71.7% this time around.
Jo Platt- Labour candidate for Leigh. Labour Hold.
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s former aide Jo Platt faced a bumpy road to selection in this safe Labour seat, with Jeremy Corbyn’s Political Secretary Katy Clark appearing to be parachuted in before pulling out at the eleventh hour. Local councillor Jo Platt was subsequently selected with significant local party support and went on to the win the seat with a majority of 9,954. Ms Platt becomes the first woman to represent the constituency in its history, and whilst it can still be considered solid for Labour, the 5.4% swing from Labour to Conservative will be a cause for longer term concern in the party’s northern heartlands. Conservative candidate James Grundy, also a local councillor, polled an impressive 16,793 votes.
Kemi Badenoch- Conservative candidate for Saffron Walden. Conservative Hold.
Despite the unpredictability of the overall result and Labour’s gains in some unlikely areas in the South of England, the unthinkable didn’t happen in the true-blue Essex constituency of Saffron Walden, where Kemi Badenoch comfortably inherited Alan Haselhurst’s former seat with a majority of 24,966. Labour moved from third to second place, attracting a higher vote in the constituency than even in the 1997 and 2001 elections, but it is unlikely that CCHQ will be sweating the future safety of this seat, with all other competition evaporating. It is also not yet clear whether Ms Badenoch will resign her seat on the London Assembly, which in any case would not trigger a by-election as she was elected via the London-wide top-up list.
Who are the unexpected winners to look out for?
Sarah Jones – Labour candidate for Croydon Central. Labour Gain.
Labour candidate Sarah Jones lost out to Conservative Gavin Barwell in Croydon Central by just 165 votes in the 2015 General Election, but has seen redemption in 2017, finally being elected to the Commons with a swing of 5.1% and a majority of 5,652. Whilst former Housing Minister Barwell will move on to a new job at 10 Downing Street, having been appointed as Theresa May’s new Chief of Staff, Sarah Jones will start a parliamentary career as Croydon’s first ever female MP.
Jones first joined the Labour Party in 1992 in response to seeing Peter Lilley deliver a speech at that year’s Conservative Party conference, in which he was seen to criticise young mothers and benefit claimants: Jones had recently discovered she was pregnant with her first child whilst still at university. She went on to work for MPs Mo Mowlam and Geraint Davies, before taking up communications roles at homelessness charity Shelter and the NHS Confederation. Upon election she said that her biggest priorities in parliament would be health and education, working to maintain services in the face of government cuts.
Ben Bradley- Conservative candidate for Mansfield. Conservative Gain.
One of the Conservative Party‘s few gains from Labour in England came in the ex-industrial Nottinghamshire town of Mansfield, where Conservative candidate Ben Bradley unseated longstanding parliamentarian Sir Alan Meale. Meale had represented the seat since 1987, but a 6.7% swing gave the Tories a 1,057 vote majority in a former mining area where over 70% of electors voted for Brexit. At the age of 27, Ben Bradley becomes one of the youngest MPs in the new parliament and the first non-Labour representative for Mansfield since 1923 (when it was the Liberals who held the seat).
Bradley has served a local councillor in the neighbouring district of Ashfield since May 2015 and was the Leader of the Conservative Group there. He has worked for Mark Spencer MP, as well as for Nick Boles MP. Outside of politics he is a school governor and volunteers as a hockey coach.
Layla Moran- Liberal Democrat candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon. Liberal Democrat Gain.
The Liberal Democrats sought to portray themselves as the party of ‘the 48%’ in this election and capitalise on disaffection among remain voters at Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. The strategy resulted in a recovery of sorts, with the party improving on their 2015 low-point of eight seats to now hold twelve in the new parliament. One of the Liberal Democrat gains came in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, where former Conservative Junior Minister Nicola Blackwood was unseated by Layla Moran. The Lib Dem candidate won the seat with a majority of 816 votes, on a swing of 9.1%.
Layla Moran had also contested the seat in 2015 but had come 9,582 votes behind the Conservatives in a constituency which had returned a Lib Dem MP between 1997 and 2005. She becomes the first ever British MP of Palestinian descent and the first female BAME Liberal Democrat MP. Moran’s professional background is in education, as a math and physics teacher, school governor and tutor. She says her priorities in parliament will be to fight for better local infrastructure (transport, housing and schools), as well as a long term solution to environmental issues such as flooding.
