Lesbury residents give their verdict after historic night for Labour at General Election

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Lesbury residents have given their reaction to a historic General Election which delivered a clean sweep for Labour in Northumberland.

Conservative ministers Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Guy Opperman were among the electoral victims, losing the North Northumberland and Hexham seats to David Smith and Joe Morris respectively.

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It marked the first Labour victory in either constituency, with the other Northumberland seats in Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery) and Cramlington and Killingworth (Emma Foody) also turning red.

Tim Bendicks said: “Labour, I'm sure, was last in representing the seat of north Northumberland in 1906. It's been quite a while, so it is somewhat surprising that they've managed to overthrow historical Lib Dem support.

Tim Bendicks and Sadie Wart.Tim Bendicks and Sadie Wart.
Tim Bendicks and Sadie Wart.

"But other than that, I'm happy. We needed a change and let's hope Labour do a good job. We all feel that the local MP that was in didn't really represent us very well.

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"We've got concerns with helping the environment from moving to clean energy. We need turbine manufacturing and potential battery plants and we really need to push for more offshore and onshore wind farms and getting solar panels onto large empty roof commercial properties that don't have any on at the moment.

Sadie Wart said: “I wasn't able to vote because I'm 17. I would have loved to though and I did encourage my family to vote a certain way. I encouraged them to vote Labour because it was very tight between Labour and Conservative here.

"I do think David Smith's worthy of being MP here because I trust in what he says and I think he has our best interests at heart. My beliefs, I'd say, align most with the Green Party so if they would have had a chance to get in, I would have liked to have voted Green, but around here I think it was just important to get the Conservatives out.

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Lucy Watson (left) and Alison Mcknight (right).Lucy Watson (left) and Alison Mcknight (right).
Lucy Watson (left) and Alison Mcknight (right).

"It's an exciting thing to be living through because it is such a big drastic change. We'll see how much of a change Labour actually bring in but it is nice that we've got a new hope after everything that's gone wrong in the last 14 years.”

Alison Mcknight said: “In happy in terms of labour, not in terms of reform. I'm shocked at the Reform results.

"We've lost faith in the whole independence thing at the moment. Nicola Sturgeon is gone and once she went it just fell apart. It's pretty much labour now. It used to always be labour anyway for years, a quick few years of SNP and now it’s back to the old days, but we needed a change. I mean there’s no money, it’s not going to be easy, but a change at least.

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Lucy Watson said: “Where we’re from, SNP have been decimated so that's a big change as well for us. We'll just see what happens with that.

David Patterson.David Patterson.
David Patterson.

“I think the Conservatives lost the election rather than Labour won.”

David Patterson said: “The Tories, given all the hoo-ha – the parties, the infighting and all the rest of it – they didn't deserve to get back in. It remains to be seen whether Labour can walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

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"I thought it was inevitable, so it's no surprise. The scale of the win is as much down to our voting system as to the popularity of Labour in the country, I think.

"This time it's more a question of disappointment with the way the last 14 years have gone, which of course Labour and all the opposition parties have made the most of.

"It gets forgotten that the banking crash was what set it all up. The Tories in 2010 started with no money, with a forecast recession that was going to last 100 years, they said. And within six months all the opposition parties were saying they were sick of austerity.

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"Doubtless for the first six, 12 months they'll be blaming the Tories for the last 14 years, but they claim to have the plans to rebuild the economy and make us all happy again. We'll see.

Paula McEwen said: “I couldn't understand why media people were saying that the votes were decided. I do think that people knew that that result was inevitable but it might have had an effect.

"I wouldn't have been happy with any outcome because to be honest I think the whole lot of them are just doing it for themselves and what they can get and I don't think they're honest. I think they'll tell you what they think you need to hear. I don't think it makes a bloody difference who you vote for.

"In all this silly nonsense with these betting on the results and all these scandals, you couldn't trust them as far as you could throw them.”

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