At the European Elections tomorrow I urge you to vote Conservative

These last 3 months I have been out campaigning for tomorrows European Elections in Newcastle and all across Tynedale for local man Martin Callanan. He is well known and I am encouraged with the responses on the doorstep. Martin is doing a great job at making the case that we need a strong voice in Europe, to reform and change the EU, so that it works for Britain.

Martin is
- a passionate Newcastle United fan
- worked for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries for 12 years,
- as well as being a Gateshead councillor, before being elected to the European Parliament in 1999. Since then he has been a strong Eurosceptic leader of the Conservatives there, and has a proud record to take to the electorate.
Under Martin's leadership in the EU there are 5 strong reasons to vote Conservative at the European Elections:

1. We have cut the EU Budget ....The first time this has ever been done!
2. We have taken Britain out of the EU Bailout fund .... so that we have not had to bail our Greece
3. We have committed to an EU Referendum .... no one else can deliver this. Labour and the Lib Dems have blocked this in Westminster.
4. We have reformed our border control .... and brought immigration down- it has reduced by a third
5. We have reformed EU Fishing policy ....and ended the bananas policy of discarding healthy fish

If you want a reformed EU, with a locally born, pragmatic, tax cutter as your representative then I urge you to vote for Martin.

Conservative Gains in Northumberland

Results as follows: in west northumberland count as decided in Hexham today
Bellingham: Conservative win for John Riddle
Corbridge: Conservative win for Jean Fearon
Haltwhistle: Conservative win for Ian Hutchinson
Hexham East; Conserative win for Cath Homer [new candidate]
Hexham West: Conservative win for Colin Cessford [new candidate]
Hexham Central and Acomb: Conservative win for Terry Robson
Humshaugh: Conservative win for Rupert Gibson [new candidate]
Ponteland East: Conservative win for Eileen Armstrong
Ponteland West: Conservative win for Veronica Jones
Ponteland South: Conservative win for Peter Jackson
Ponteland North - Conservative win when Richard Dodd elected unopposed by any other party - very bizarre!
South Tynedale: Conservative win for Colin Horncastle
Haydon and Hadrian: Lib Dem hold
Prudhoe North and South: Labour wins
Bywell & Stocksfield: Independent wins

I would make 4 observations from this election -
- Great results in the 3 tough Labour / Conservative fights of Hexham Central, Hexham East and Haltwhistle for our Conservative councillors. On a national swing all should have gone to Labour but all 3 were held by a hundred plus votes or more.
- Lib Dem vote declined everywhere. Not as bad as South Shields last night where they got 1%, but in Prudhoe North it was a Lib Dem seat before this election and their candidate this time did not get 10% of the vote. A good hold for the Lib Dems in Haydon and Hadrian, but the hard work of former ambulance man Colin Cessford knocking on every door for over a year paid off in Hexham West. No canddiate has worked harder this last year.
- Ponteland saw a failure by Labour to put up any Labour candidate in any of the 4 county seats, and only 1 liberal in Pont South, leaving 2 fights in east and west against Ukip on their own, which both of our star ladies won by a landslide. Ukip made little impact here. One of their candidates told me unequivocally and robustly last week that he would be a councillor on Friday, and then only polled just over 10%.
- across the county the labour party have clearly made progress but the Conservatives have also won new seats in Cramlington, Morpeth North and Bamburgh.

My thanks to all the candidates who worked so very hard, including the losers on the day. Noone left anything in the locker.
My congratulations to the winners from other parties - Tony Reid, Eileen Burt, Anne dale, Paul Kelly and Alan Sharp - all fought good campaigns. My thanks to all the council and electoral staff, the police and everyone involved in the count. These events take a lot of managing / effort. My final thanks to all the supporters, families and friends who gave up so much time / effort for their candidates - but most of all my thanks to everyone who participated. We are lucky to have the vote - it was good that you used it.
For my part, my phone is off - I am going to be sleeping a lot this weekend!