Friday 6 July 2012

Hibbert Wins Westgate By-Election

I should probably put this off till tomorrow and get some sleep but I really want to be the first of the bloggers to report the confirmed results:


Jodie Hibbert [LAB] - 482
James Maskell [CON] - 377
Ash Ashbee [IND] - 316
Jeffrey Elenor [UKIP] - 298
Bill Furness [LIB] - 64
Claire Mendelsohn [TIG] - 22


Turnout 30.56%


Well done to Labour's Jodie Hibbert on getting elected. I didn't see her much about on the campaign trail but I know Labour worked very hard to secure the win.


Thank you to everyone who came out to vote today. Definitely a bigger turnout than expected by many of us and certainly food for thought about the state of local politics in those results. But such talk is for another time. 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear james better luck next time fell sorry for thanet on a whole that we are letting the labour lot in yet again think the group should now look at a new leader for our party so we can now start to built for the next election
lets see how much time the new cllr for westgate has bringing up a young family on her own who will pay for the babysitters (we will i think)the good old ratepayer and must be busy with the mayor with all the events coming up

Peter C said...

Well done Jodi! Much deserved, especially in the light of Simon and other Tories nasty smear campaign (which I see from the comment above is continuing)... and hard luck James, better luck next time! If the Labour candidate wasn't so good then I would've given you my support and you probably would've won! ; )

Anonymous said...

Mayoress and councillor all in 2 months!

Jennie Edwards said...

Well done to Jodie and Team Labour. This was a dogfight down to the last hour. Everyone worked hard as they could from most parties.

James, I am very proud to have been your agent, even if we didn't get the result we wanted. I've worked with a lot of people and you've certainly been my favourite by far. Thank you for working your socks off and for being awesome.

I'm not particularly a believer in fate, however.. onwards and upwards as they say ;-)

Luke Edwards said...

Commiserations, James. It was a very close run thing so it's clear that all sides put in a great deal of effort. But don't fret, I'm sure you will become a councillor at some point in the future. You certainly have the dedication for it and I wish you the best.

Unknown said...

Well fought James.. there's always a next time in politics!

Anonymous said...

Commiserations, James, but you suffered the backlash of Tory voter dismay with the present government. No reflection on you for, sadly, national politics play a big part in local elections.

Recently overheard a Conservative councillor, who had sent apologies for missing a council meeting, whilst attending a Nigel Farage presentaion on the same evening, comment that the UKIP leader had said everything a good Tory should want to hear.

If elected Conservatives feel like that, imagine how our rank and file voters feel. Regretably, our party leadership have forgotten the second, some might say first, rule when taking office after Labour. (1)Clear up the financial mess inherited and then (2) make sure they do not come back next time around to screw it all up again.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't a "close run thing", Luke. A majority of 100+ against a vote of 482 is hardly that. Labour didn't receive an overall majority, but that is common-place for all Parties in elections now. The Tories failed to hold a safe seat. They lost. Maskell was rejected (again).

Moores can blame UKIP if he likes, and come up with a bank of excuses. "Tom Clarke" can say it's all down to national politics, and urge a swing to the far right which he would find more comfortable. But both would apply wholly different "logic" and argument if the Tories had one. Principles have no place in their armoury.

Anonymous said...

"one" should be "won".

Anonymous said...

Just for the record, 11:00, I would applaud a swing to the right win or lose. It's keeping going in the wrong direction that is ruining this country.

Luke Edwards said...

Anon 11:01, I was merely being polite and offering James my commiserations. Good manners cost nothing. Given the fact that there was an 8.2% swing from Con to Lab since 2011 I'll admit the win for Labour was a substantial one, but it's not the amount of the votes I was referring to in my definition of 'close'.

I'd argue it was a "close run thing" because there was indeed a lot of hard work put in by all sides and even though a win for Labour was a probable one it was far from cut and dried until the very last moment.

Westgate-on-Sea was, as you said yourself, previously considered a 'safe' Tory seat, so the result on the day could have gone either way. Only a fool would've counted their chickens before the polling stations had closed.