Conservatives gain ground but fail to upset the status quo

By amy bowen news reporter

THE party colours in each of Walsall's three constituencies remain unchanged in last Thursday's General Election, although the Conservatives gained voters.

Labour's Valerie Vaz became the new MP for Walsall South, replacing her popular colleague, Bruce George, who stood down at this election.

The former lawyer won her seat with a majority of 1,755 votes, maintaining Labour's record of representing the constituency since 1974.

However, Labour's share of the vote was down almost 10 per cent, with an 8.2 per cent swing to the Conservatives.

"The last few weeks of campaigning has been exciting" Ms Vaz said.

"The real work of representing all the people of Walsall South now begins, whether it is fighting for more resources for the borough as a whole, or the immensely important work of helping constituents with their individual problems."

In Walsall North, Labour's long-serving MP David Winnick held the seat for the eighth time since 1979, with just 990 votes separating him from the Tory candidate.

"I certainly appreciate the kind remarks I received about my work and will continue to speak my mind in the commons," he said.

"However, at the end of it I stand as a Labour candidate and have to accept some people, however favourable of me and my work, will not have voted for me because of the party I represent. I'm under no illusions.

"I will work as hard for my constituents as I have always done – there's no complacency on my part."

In the Aldridge and Brownhills constituency the seat was again won by Tory Richard Shepherd.

He enjoyed an 11 per cent boost at the polls and with 22,913 votes beat his nearest rival by 15,256 ballots.

"My thanks must go to those who manned the polling stations because of the unbelievable amount of time they gave to that," Mr Shepherd said.

"I am only an MP because the good people of Aldridge Brownhills put me there. I hope I've served them well and I will continue to do so."