Conservatives’ 30-year wait for a Newcastle win goes on
THE Conservative Party’s 30-year wait for an election win in Newcastle goes on.
Not since John Major was Prime Minister have the Tories managed to win a council seat in the city, the last time being when Sandra Gilfillan and Nina Hannaford were elected in 1992.
The party had held high hopes of ending that three-decade drought on Thursday, particularly in Gosforth.
Early rumblings on local election day suggested that the Liberal Democrats were nervous that incumbent Colin Ferguson could be at risk, after an active campaign from retired GP Doc Anand.
But the Tories once again fell short, with Coun Ferguson winning with a majority of 332.
Newcastle Conservative chairman John Watts, who finished a
distant third in his own race in the Castle ward, said he was “of course disappointed” with the Gosforth outcome - which saw Doc Anand finish second with 1,256 votes and a 31% share.
He told the Sunday Sun: “We did have big hopes because Doc is well known as a former GP there and he has had a huge amount of visibility ever since coming second last year.
“He has won a larger proportion of the vote, our share is up 3.5% to over 30%.
“With all of the hard work he has been doing it could come our way next year, but we will have to see whether he wants to stand again.”
It proved a tough night for the Tories in some parts of England, particularly with Labour winning control of three Conservative councils in London and seizing a sizeable majority in the new Cumberland authority.
Elsewhere in the North East, Tory predictions of gains in Sunderland that could have taken the council out of Labour control for the first time did not come to pass.
Despite concerns of a voter backlash over the Partygate scandals and the cost of living crisis, Mr Watts continues to back Boris Johnson’s leadership.
He said of the Prime Minister, who met Tory candidates in Newcastle on Monday during a visit to the region: “He is a very engaging and a very committed person. Undoubtedly he has led the Western world in support of Ukraine.
“In my view he is very personable, very easy to get on with, very down to earth. I am very happy to be in a party that he is the leader of.”