Tory gain as Lincoln turns blue

– Jack Dobson and Ashleigh Gray contributed with this report

Tory Karl McCartney has won the Lincoln parliamentary seat in a close battle between Labour and the Conservatives, with the Lib Dems bringing up the rear in third. Lincoln was a hotly contested parliamentary seat, with a larger turn out this year than in the last two elections, and students in particular may have been pivotal in the outcome.

The seat was won by McCartney with 17,163 votes, 1,058 more than second place Gillian Merron who came in close with 16,105 votes. Reg Shore for the Liberal Democrats received an impressive 9,250 votes. The BNP managed to take fourth place with 1,367 votes, which received ridicule and booing amidst a couple of claps.

McCartney was surprisingly complementary of his opponents: “It’s been a pretty good and fair fight mostly. We’ve enjoyed the campaign together.

“Reg has done very well and Gary’s done well as an independant. Gillian has shown that she’s well respected by the people of Lincoln, and she’s been a good candidate. Thank you Gillian for what you’ve done for the people of Lincoln.”

Speaking to The Linc after the announcement, Shore said: “It was a really good result for us because we have increased our vote by 50 per cent. Clearly if we can do that again, we’re there. Now we’re in a position where we have a Conservative MP and that is a poisoned chalice.

“If the Conservatives are in control of the country, then they could put themselves in a position of big problems and that will create a backlash, which of course is perfect for us. And then in years to come we might even have a Liberal Democrat MP for Lincoln.”

McCartney says that the first thing he will do is spend time with his family. “We’ve been working hard for a long time in Lincoln, and that has paid off as we nearly increased our vote by 50 per cent, and obviously we needed to do that with a very credible opposition that we had. We ran a very professional campaign, our messages were coherent, and I think we did very well in Lincoln with delivering that message to as many people as we could.”

“We knocked on thousands of doors, speaking to thousands of people and obviously they responded to that, and the fact that they came out and voted.

“I’m obviously very happy, supremely happy in fact. It’s going to be a tough job in Parliament unless the Conservatives have a working majority – I hope that we do have – and I’m obviously looking forward to the challenges ahead, and obviously representing the people of Lincoln as well as I can.”

Ever the sporting contestant, Merron said: “Well of course I’m very disappointed, and my sadness is that I have worked hard every single day since I was elected 13 years ago to do my very best for the people of Lincoln. I also have to be big enough to take it on the chin when I don’t win.

“It is my wish that the new members of Parliament will take care of the people of Lincoln as I did.

“I think I need to regroup and think about what my new life will bring. I don’t have particular plans, my total focus has been, as always, on representing Lincoln. My boss has always been the people of Lincoln and I respect their decision.

“We always knew that this would be a tough campaign, it’s been very hard fought indeed and that the result would be close. And that has played out in Lincoln as it has done it other constituencies.”

Merron isn’t sure if she will return for the next election: “You have to look at what’s going to happen. At the time that we’re doing this interview none of us know what Parliament is going to look like or what politics is going to look like but what we do know is that it has changed.”