The Thoresby Society

 

1997 - 1 May

Central
D. Fatchett (Labour) 25,766 *
W. Wild (Conservative) 5,077
D. Freeman (Liberal Democrat) 4,164
P. Myers (Referendum) 1,042
M. Rix (Socialist Labour ) 656
C. Hill (Socialist) 304
[ * Died 1999 ]

East
G. Mudie (Labour) 24,151
J. Emsley (Conservative) 6,685
M. Kirk (Liberal Democrat) 3,689
L. Parrish (Referendum) 1,267

Morley & Rothwell
J. Gunnell (Labour) 26,836
A. Barraclough (Conservative) 12,086
M. Galdas (Liberal Democrat) 5,087
D. Mitchell Innes (Referendum) 1,359
R. Wood (British National) 381
P. Sammon (ProLife) 148

North East
F. Hamilton (Labour) 22,368
T. J. R. Kirkhope (Conservative) 15,409
B. Winlow (Liberal Democrat) 6,318
I. Rose (Referendum) 946
J. Egan (Socialist Labour) 468

North West
H. Best (Labour) 19,694
K. Hampson (Conservative) 15,850
B. Pearce (Liberal Democrat) 11,689
S. Emmett (Referendum) 1,325
R. Lamb (Socialist Labour) 335
R. Toon (Independent ) 251
D. Duffy (Independent ) 232

Pudsey
P. A. Truswell (Labour) 25,370
P. Bone Conservative) 19,163
J. Brown (Liberal Democrat) 7,375
D. Crabtree (Referendum) 823

West
J. D. Battle (Labour) 26,819
J. Whelan (Conservative) 7,048
N. Amor (Liberal Democrat) 3,622
B. Finley (Referendum) 1,210
D. Blackburn (Green) 896
N. Nowosielski (Liberal) 625

Elmet
C. Burgon (Labour) 28,348
S. Batiste (Conservative) 19,569
B. Jennings (Liberal Democrat) 4,691
C. Zawadski (Referendum) 1,487


This was a landslide victory for Tony Blair’s Labour winning 418 seats compared with the Conservatives 165 and Liberal Democrats 46. The centrist policies of New Labour proved popular whilst the existing Conservative government suffered from a series of sleaze scandals and the party was divided over the European Union. The campaign was marked by the effective use of the media by Labour and is often claimed to have given birth to the concept of the ‘spin doctor’.

The national pattern was replicated in Leeds where Labour won every seat. The biggest cheer of the night was said to be for Fabian Hamilton when it was announced he had won Leeds North East where there was an 11.9% swing to Labour. Despite the Referendum candidate in Pudsey, David Crabtree, pulling out of the contest and urging his supporters to vote Conservative, Labour won there in what was always said to be a safe ‘true blue’ Conservative seat with a 13.2% swing. Labour won two other safe Conservative seats; Elmet, where there was a swing of 10.9% to Labour, and in Leeds North West with one of 11.8%. Sainsbury’s at the White Rose Centre, Beeston, decided to open from dawn to midnight on polling day in an attempt to catch the ‘floating voter’.