Meacher full of praise

Photo: Darren Robinson and Paul Sterritt

VICTORIOUS . . . Michael Meacher increased his Labour majority in Oldham West and Royton by over 5,000.

VETERAN MP Michael Meacher comfortably retained his Oldham West and Royton seat with a whopping 14,738 majority.

The 75-year-old Labour stalwart, who has been MP in the constituency since 1970, received 55 per cent of the vote.

Mr Meacher said: “It’s a sensational victory. I thank my fellow candidates for their contribution to this campaign. I want to thank all the people who voted for me and I hope equally to work for those who did not.”

The turnout was initially announced as a staggering 70.86 per cent, but was later revised to 60.39 per cent.

Mr Meacher took the opportunity to praise Oldhamers for voting in their numbers but stated that a trend of people choosing not to vote concerned him.: “This year I have seen such an enthusiasm from people in my constituency to get out and vote. The uprising of people coming out to say they are not voting concerns me greatly. There’s been a lot of people choosing to disregard their ballot paper this time. This is a big concern.”

Mr Meacher, who will be 80 by the next General Election, did not give too much away when asked if he will stand again: “As I have my health and the drive to support this constituency the best I can I will do so. I can’t really think about the next election just yet.”

UKIP candidate Francis Arbour came second in the ward after securing 8,892 votes.

Mr Arbour said: “We are not happy with second, we want to win seats. A problem we faced was convincing generations of Labour voters in the town to put faith in us to really make a difference.

“As a party we will build from this, we have the experience of launching a huge and thorough campaign and we can only get stronger.”

Conservative candidate Kamran Ghafoor polled 8,187 votes for third place: “I am disappointed we came third - it is down to the national surge of UKIP. Hopefully next time we will do better in Oldham. I believe the electorate is very sensible. Now we can finish the job we started and make the country better and stronger for everyone.”

Liberal Democrat Garth Harkness came fourth with 1,589 votes: “It’s been a disappointing night for the Lib-Dems across the board but we always knew it was going to be immensely difficult.”

In fifth place was Green candidate Simeon Hart, who received only 839 votes.

He said: “It is the first time a Green Party candidate has stood for parliament in this constituency.

“Hopefully we can improve on this next time.”