Thursday 2 May 2019

PETERBOROUGH BY-ELECTION

The by-election to replace the disgraced Fiona Onasanya will take place five weeks from today, on June 6th.  A number of candidates have already been announced, as follows.

Labour - Lisa Forbes
Conservative - Paul Bristow
Lib Dem - Beki Sellick
Green - Fiona Radic
UKIP - John Whitby
SDP - Patrick O'Flynn
Monster Raving Loon - Alan Howling Lord Hope

The Brexit Party have confirmed it will also be standing, as will leftie Brexiteer George Galloway (on an independent ticket).  The Tory candidate is also a Brexiteer, as is the SDP candidate, so it appears that there are a whole host of candidates looking to capitalise on Peterborough's 61% Leave vote.  The danger here is that it will split the vote horribly for the Conservatives and deliver the seat back to Labour.

The previous two elections have been extremely close and the seat has regularly changed hands between Labour and Conservative for the past 45 years.  The Tories have held it for the majority of that time.

2017 General Election
Fiona Onasanya (Lab) 22,950
Stewart Jackson (Con) 22,343
Beki Sellick (LD) 1,597
Fiona Radic (G) 848

2015 General Election
Stewart Jackson (Con) 18,684
Lisa Forbes (Lab) 16,759
Mary Herdman (UKIP) 7,485
Darren Fower (LD) 1,774
Darren Bisby-Boyd (G) 1,218