Shropshire Star

General Election 2019: Telford - Lucy Allan increases majority by more than 10,000 to mock tight predictions

Conservative Lucy Allan made a mockery of talk of a tight race in Telford as she increased her majority by more than 10,000

Published
Last updated
Lucy Allan celebrates

Results:

  • Lucy Allan, Conservative* - 25,546

  • Katrina Gilman, Labour - 14,605

  • Shana Roberts, Lib Dems - 2,674

  • Turnout - 62.46 per cent

Re-elected with a majority of 720 in 2017, Ms Allan secured 25,546 votes this time around, beating her Labour rival Katrina Gilman by 10,941 votes.

It was a resounding and shocking margin of victory, and came as Labour’s campaign on Telford’s hospital services found little traction with residents.

It marks the third time Ms Allan has been elected as the town’s MP and she described it as “an extraordinary night”.

She said: “We have worked hard over seven years to establish a Conservative presence, because Telford people are hard-working decent people who are ‘small C’ conservatives in terms of their aspirations and ambitions, so it is fantastic that a seven-year journey has culminated in a result like that.

“Many people have said it would never have happened. Back in 2015 I was always told ‘you’re never going to win Telford, why don’t you play it safe, put in a little bit of work then go and do a safe seat somewhere else’. But I always believed Telford wanted the freedom to vote Conservative and to have that choice, so I am really delighted that has been taken.”

Ms Allan said she believed Brexit had played a big part in people’s decisions, and said that residual anger over a failure to deliver the referendum result had been reflected in the national results.

She said: “I think Brexit has played a huge part in the national picture and of course that was reflected here where we had a vibrant Leave vote in the referendum in 2016. I think that residual anger is still there because they voted leave and felt they were not listened to. There is absolutely no doubt that it would have been very difficult for the Labour party to win here on a platform of being neutral on an issue the people had spoken on quite clearly in a referendum.”

Ms Allan said her local focus would continue with the town’s A&E at Princess Royal Hospital, as well as making sure Telford’s CSE inquiry is completed.