May 4, 2012 12.26 pm This story is over 141 months old

Elections 2012: A good one for Labour

Comment: Lincoln Labour parliamentary candidate is over the moon with her party’s landslide win the local elections.

— Lucy Rigby (centre) is Lincoln’s parliamentary candidate for Labour. She gives her insights on Labour’s win at the local council elections.


Last night was a good one for Lincoln Labour: we polled over 50% of the vote; winning 10 of the 11 seats available, achieved convincing majorities in wards which had previously been close (such as Birchwood and Minster) and — importantly — people put their trust in us across the city, in areas like Bracebridge, as well as Abbey and Carholme.

The results are testimony to extremely hard work both by our Labour city council, which is delivering for residents in these tough times, and by our candidates and volunteers, who have spoken to thousands of people over the last few weeks to get out our message.

That message was a positive one, based on the Labour city council’s record over the last 12 months. In particular, through the offering of a sensible and credible economic plan designed to help small businesses, reduce Council running costs, build more housing, and create jobs and apprenticeships.

This can be contrasted with the situation the Tories have presented us with nationally – pursuing irresponsible, ideologically driven policies that have plunged us back into recession and punished hard-working families. Last night’s results are a demonstration of the anger that people feel towards the Conservative-led Government’s ineptitude, but in honesty, this anger has been brewing for months.

Not only have we been totally failed by Osborne’s economic policies, with a double-dip recession and high unemployment, we’ve also been hit with new taxes (the Granny Tax, the Pasty Tax, the Caravan Tax etc), seen the incompetence if the fuel chaos and — most importantly of all — the Tories have repeatedly chosen to hit normal, hard-working people whilst giving unfair tax breaks to those with the most. I think this partially explains why turnout was low last night — I think a lot of Tory voters couldn’t bring themselves to vote positively for this Government.

So overall a very encouraging night for Lincoln Labour, and I’m very proud to be part of such a dedicated team. We worked hard to gain voters’ confidence and trust and we will continue to do so.

Lucy Rigby is Lincoln Labour's candidate to be the city's next MP. She is a solicitor and lives in central Lincoln.