May brought cabinet to Yorkshire but region’s voters backed Labour

Party fails in bid to target seats in region

THE ELECTION result in Halifax symbolises everything that went wrong for Theresa May.

The Prime Minister brought her cabinet to the West Yorkshire town to unveil her party’s manifesto in a move designed to signal her electoral ambitions.

Her predecessor had launched the Conservatives’ first poster of the 2015 campaign as he eyed the town which had repeatedly flirted with electing a Tory MP but remained stubbornly Labour for 30 years.

Mrs May’s choice of Halifax for the manifesto launch showed she was determined to succeed where other Conservative leaders had failed.

Labour’s Holly Lynch was defending a majority of just 428 and many in Conservative circles considered it almost a given that the seat would go their way.

But in the early hours of yesterday morning it became clear Halifax voters had again rebuffed the Conservatives.

And what had been one of Labour’s most marginal seats now had a majority for Ms Lynch of more than 5,000 votes.

The story was repeated in other Conservative targets in West Yorkshire.

Dewsbury had been a Conservative seat until 2015 and the party was confident of overturning Labour MP Paula Sherriff ’s 1,415 vote majority.

But Ms Sherriff emerges from the 2017 with an enhanced majority of 3,321.

In Wakefield, the Conservatives believed sitting Labour MP Mary Creagh was hugely vulnerable.

Ms Creagh is an enthusiastic pro-European who had voted against triggering Article 50, the process for beginning the Brexit talks.

Given she represented a constituency that voted in favour of leaving the European Union and where almost 8,000 people had voted Ukip two years earlier, the Conservatives made Wakefield a major target.

But Ms Creagh’s majority was cut by just 400 votes as she was returned to the Commons.

Worse still for Theresa May, seats the party had fought hard for as it ousted Labour from power, and which the party thought were in no danger at this election, turned red.

Colne Valley, won from Labour as the Conservatives headed for coalition government in 2010, was lost to Labour as Thelma Walker overturned Jason McCartney’s 5,378 vote majority.

Former Selby MP John Grogan was returned to the Commons as the new Labour MP for Keighley, ousting Kris Hopkins.

This election has also brought other Conservative-held seats back into play for Labour.

The Tories only just held onto Calder Valley, won in 2010, by 609 votes. Pudsey, another 2010 win, was held by just 331 votes

Morley and Outwood offered the Tories a rare ray of sunshine as Andrea Jenkyns increased her majority in the seat she won from Ed Balls in 2015 from 421 to 2,104.

This election has also brought other Conservative-held seats back into play for Labour.