One Kirklees area backed staying in EU

ONE part of Kirklees voted against Brexit, new analysis suggests.

We will never know, officially, how different areas of Kirklees voted in the EU Referendum.

But new information has suggested one of our constituencies was in favour of remaining in the EU – just.

Kirklees as a whole voted 55% ‘leave’ – but a breakdown of the figures by constituency or ward was not officially recorded.

In some areas, including Calderdale, the controversial Brexit vote was counted by traditional borough wards, allowing constituency results to be concluded.

But election officials in Kirklees used unidentifiable numbers to collate their ballot papers – disguising the location of the votes in the ballot boxes.

The Examiner has been told no-one could work out ward or constituency results using the numbered mini-counts.

But an educated guess about who voted for what in Kirklees has now been calculated by a politics expert Dr Chris Hanretty, of the University of East Anglia.

His work reveals that the Colne Valley constituency voted to remain in the EU by the narrowest of margins – 51%. It was the only one of Kirklees’ four parliamentary constituencies to do so.

The Conservative constituency includes the Holme and Colne Valley areas and parts of north and west Huddersfield, including Oakes, Salendine Nook, Lindley and Birchencliffe.

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman has previously said he had been told his constituency voted ‘Remain’.

But Dr Hanretty’s calculations give a marginal victory for ‘Leave’ – in at 51%.

The most overwhelming support for Brexit came from the Batley and Spen constituency with a 60% ‘Leave’ result.

Batley and Spen’s former MP Jo Cox was a staunch ‘Remainer’.

She was murdered by far-right fanatic Thomas Mair, who allegedly shouted “Britain First” before stabbing and shooting her in Birstall last June.

Dewsbury’s constituency Brexit result is estimated to be 57% in favour of leaving the EU.

Only four other constituencies in West Yorkshire are thought to have voted Remain – Bradford West, Leeds Central, Leeds North West and Leeds North East.

All four Kirklees MPs voted for the Brexit Bill last Wednesday, to invoke Article 50 at some point next month. The draft legislation was approved by 494 votes to 122, and now moves to the House of Lords.