The general election in Cornwall has delivered an effective dead heat between the Lib Dems and the Tories, a situation which mirrors the deadlock among the politicians at Westminster. Andrew George, Dan Rogerson and Stephen Gilbert will go to the House of Commons for the Lib Dems, while the Tories will send George Eustice, Sarah Newton and (astonishingly) Sheryll Murray up the road.
No question about it, for once the Cornish Tories’ smugness might actually be warranted (worst offender on election night: George Eustice, who managed to make Sheryll Murray look gracious). They won half the seats in Cornwall and nearly overtook the Lib Dems in the popular vote (those second home votes came in quite handy, by the look of things). Their two high-profile failures were in North Cornwall, where Lib Dem Dan Rogerson comfortably swept the Surrey exile Sian Flynn aside, and St Austell and Newquay, where life coach Caroline Righton’s wealthy campaign fell short of the Lib Dems’ Steve Gilbert.
The Lib Dems won’t be pleased with their evening but they will probably reflect that it could have been so much worse. A year ago they looked set to lose five out of the six Cornish seats, but to hold three (and stay ahead in the popular vote) is probably not too bad a performance in the face of the swing to the Tories in the rest of the UK. In addition, two of their three losses (Camborne & Redruth and Truro & Falmouth) were by a fairly narrow margin, so they will expect to compete keenly next time out.
Labour’s election was a disaster. Their best hope was Camborne & Redruth, but they have now slipped so far back that they can no longer claim the seat is a three-way marginal. Charlotte MacKenzie’s delusion that Truro & Falmouth was winnable has now been put out of its misery, with Labour finishing a distant third. North Cornwall was worst for Labour, with the party finishing fourth behind UKIP and losing their deposit in the process. Only Philippa Latimer, in St Ives, looks to have outperformed expectations.
The most unexpected disappointment was probably Mebyon Kernow’s. The only real performances of note came from Loic Rich in Truro & Falmouth and Dick Cole in St Austell & Newquay, but these results (and particularly Dick’s) didn’t live up to the expectations of many in the nationalist movement. MK will need to have a serious examination of their message, strategy and organization, in addition to hoping that the wrangling at Westminster delivers PR, before they can hope for a breakthrough of any kind. Dark days ahead.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the next election, (which will be much sooner than 5 years). With all of the seats in Cornwall so close it seems like any of them might change hands.
Personally can’t help thinking that the real winners were the tories. All of Mackenzie and Robinsons’ spiel about three horse races -no doubt aided by the same message from the bbc- let the tories in. Look at all the constituencies and the labour vote added to the lib dem vote easily tops the tory share. This own goal have the tories 3 more MPs crucial at this stage.
You refer to the possibility of PR, but this lacks any attempt to analyse tactical voting in Cornwall at this election. This constituency was held previously by Labour.
No, it wasn’t. Half of it was in the old Truro and St Austell constituency and the other half was the Tory part of the old Falmouth and Camborne seat. As Thursday’s figures proved, Labour’s ‘strength’ was still in Camborne.
At every election since the second world war when Falmouth and Truro were in the same constituency, Labour won. If the “Tory part” of the old F/C is now in T/F, how come George Eustice MP won on Thursday? And you have not replied to the point about tactical voting.
Define strength??? Looking at the figures the only party to lose in its vote share compared to 2005 was labour. Considering their free access to the media and considerable infrastructure to rely upon the labour party in Cornwall were frankly pathetic.
Thanks for making Cornwall half blue Charlotte et al.
Not so – in Cornwall the Liberal Democrat voteshare is down 2 per cent compared to 2005, and this at an election where nationally their voteshare rose by 1 per cent.
Nationally, although there was an increase in voters there doesn’t seem to be any significant support for any of the Parties. None of the Parties can have had any comfort from the results, although Labour did far better than they might have expected. The Expenses scandal is still having an influence on the poll. This can explain the loss of Julia’s seat and the Truro/Falmouth result, as well as the reduction in majority in West Cornwall. There doesn’t seem to be the support for PR as the Lib Dem’s suggest- voters want to vote for their own constituency MP, not have someone allocated from off the Grace and favours list; We have seen enough of that with the appointment of Mandelson. Julia has, in my opinion, been a good Constituency MP, as was Candy Atherton, and as would Terrye Trevenson have been if elected. Only time will tell with their Tory replacements.
I am also not sure whether any of the Candidates deserved my vote as apart from a few leaflets through the door I saw not one Party Member or Candidate or was informed of any local event where i could go to hear them speak. Surprising, since Julia appeared on my doorstep at the last local election, in Falmouth to boot.