McMahon re-elected in Oldham West and Royton

As ‘safe’ Labour seats across the country turned blue, Jim McMahon managed to keep a tight grip of an important Oldham stronghold.

Mr McMahon was re-elected to represent Oldham West and Royton, but following the national trend saw his support drop by more than 5,000 votes since 2017.

This was against the backdrop of a devastating night for Labour which saw voters desert the party in droves, and fail to turn enough seats red to oust the Tories.

In Greater Manchester, this included shock wins in Heywood and Middleton, Leigh, and Bury South.

The fate of his colleagues across the country meant Mr McMahon’s celebrations for his 24,579 winning votes were considerably muted.

He described it as a ‘very difficult’ election.

“This clearly is not a good night for the Labour party,” he said.

“The campaign that we tried to run was about rebuilding Britain and being positive, and holding the Conservatives to account for the damage they have done to the fabric of our community.

“I deeply regret that we weren’t able to convince enough of the country that we were ready for office.

“I love this town and I’m going to do my best to give you good representation.”

But he also criticised the direction of the party, adding that people had felt Labour couldn’t deliver on the many pledges it was promising voters if elected.

“Obviously Brexit was dominating, and who might be the next prime minister was a factor,” he added.

“I got a sense of a lack of optimism that we could achieve what we said we are going to achieve. Just the scale of it, how much is possible in the time that we have got. 

“If huge numbers of previous Labour supporters are saying we don’t represent them, then we have got to look at that. 

“It’s staggering when you look at a decade of public service decline, why would people not want hope and optimism.”

In the face of a blue wave sweeping across the country, Oldham West held firm for Labour with Mr McMahon’s Conservative challenger Kirsty Finlayson polling ten thousand fewer votes, a total of 13,452.

But while she said it would have been ‘remarkable’ to have overturned his majority, the trend across the north showed the Labour party ‘took votes for granted’.

“I think we have seen a massive change all across the north with people sick and tired of what has been three and a half years of Parliament not actually representing what the people have voted for,” she said.

“Corbyn has been just flip-flopping on his position on Brexit which has been the biggest democratic decision this country has ever taken.

“On the doorstep I definitely saw that, speaking to people who felt a massive sense of anger at the situation. There has been a huge sea change of support.”

Turnout overall for the seat was down from 63.2pc in 2017 to 61.03pc.

The Brexit party candidate Helen Formby came in third place polling 3,316 votes, stealing support from UKIP’s Anthony Prince who only gained 389 votes.

Meanwhile the Green Party candidate Dan Jerrome won 681 votes.

Saddleworth councillor Garth Harkness, who represented the Liberal Democrats and campaigned on their ‘Stop Brexit’ manifesto surprisingly polled better than in 2017, gaining 500 more votes – 1,484 in total.

A new challenger for this election – the hyper-local Proud of Oldham and Saddleworth party – escaped last place, with candidate Debbie Cole winning 533 votes.

Ms Cole, who paid for her deposit and campaign material through public donations, said that it was the start of a push towards taking Labour councillors’ seats at the May elections.

“This is the start of things,” she said.

“I’ve found it quite fascinating how many people are fed up with what’s going on and all I’m hearing when I’ve been out canvassing is we need a change in Oldham because it’s just not working. 

“That’s what’s driving me to carry on and move forward with it.”