DEVASTATED Labour candidate Lynn Denham has defended her showing in the General Election despite the party losing more than 3,000 votes to the Conservative majority rise to nearly 7,000.
The city councillor came home with 19,098, lower than any of the victory totals recorded by Robin Walker in his four election wins in the city and below the 19,421 notched up by former Labour MP Mike Foster when he won the seat for the final time in 2005.
She told the Observer the result was ‘democracy’ and the outcome was always hard to predict but priased the support she had received on the streets during the December campaign.
“There were parts of the city I had extremely strong support from, healthcare staff especially. What I can’t tell at the moment is the impact young people had. I had many people on the campaign who were very involved and met many on the street wishing me well,” she said.
“There are many issues the people of Worcester want to make a difference to and that is the challenge for our MP going forward and the make up of parliament.
Despite an horrific night for her party and seeing a 2,508 vote majority turn into one of 6,750, Coun Denham claimed Worcester Labour had done fairly well compared to other parts of the country.
She also appeared to welcome the statement from her party leader Jeremy Corbyn who confirmed at his count in Islington he would not lead Labour into another General Election and would embark on a period of ‘reflection’ following the result.
“I think in light of the fixed terms parliament act I think that is an appropriate decision,” Coun Denham said.
