The Importance of Corby
I cut my political teeth in Wellingborough, the seat next door to Corby, which is why I have decided to discuss the Corby and East Northamptonshire by-election on this blog. Those who know Corby will tell you that it votes Labour, it always has voted Labour and Corby always will vote Labour. Even though the Corby Labour party have run the Council into the ground and Phil Hope as the former MP did nothing for the constituency! Labour have let Corby down, but still the town votes Labour. However this is not a By-election in Corby Town, it is a by-election for Corby and
East Northamptonshire!
The Constituency was created in 1983 and was won by Conservative William Powell. Powell head the seat with a majority of nearly 4,000 in ‘83 then just over in ‘87 1,000 and just over 300 in ’92. Labours Phil Hope won the seat in 1997 by just over 11,000 but the 1997 result was different kind of result as Tory safe seats turned out to be not so safe after all and plenty of Tory MP’s will tell you that! Hope held the seat at ’01 with a majority just over 5,000 and a majority just over 1,000 in ’05. The Conservatives won the seat with a majority just over 1000 in 2010. The reason I have ran through this is to highlight that Corby is by no means another by-election in a Labour strong hold, it is a by-election in a swing seat that will determine the next general election!
We can win, we should win, the outer parts of Corby vote Conservative, East Northamptonshire votes Conservatives! From 2007 – 2011 the Tories had every seat on east Northamptonshire District
Council, and even now Labour can only muster a few. Equally the Conservatives only have 4 on smaller Corby Borough Council. Labour are very weak in Northamptonshire as whole, across the county in 2010 they were destroyed. The Labour campaign machine in Northants is dead, but at this by-election it will be propped up by the national party, they will breathe new life into it, this means this by-election will have long term implications.
The Conservatives will w
in this by-election and hold Corby and East Northamptonshire not by attacking Labour, although we must attack what they have done as a local party and what they plan to do as a national one, but by encouraging our supporters to come out and keep a Conservative in Corby. This election will be one by doing one thing this Government admits to being bad at, communicating what we are doing! The fact is that this Government is doing more the help families, even in a time of recession than Labour did in 13 years (10 if which were in good economic times, this Government is getting a grip on immigration, getting a grip on a welfare state that was open to abuse and getting a grip on a justice system which fails at its own name! This Government would be going further on these issues if we a majority, and therefore only keeping a Conservative i
n Corby is keeping the fire burning for getting a grip, instead of a return to Labour!
Yes, some Tories have gone to UKIP over the Government stance on the EU and yes UKIP can cost us this election, I would be a fool to deny it. But I ask the readers this, (and I ask a very passionate and committed Euro-sceptic) will any sensible person in Corby vote on such a minor issue, if they want a Government to strong on Europe then Vote Conservative! UKIP will let Labour in, it kept Ed Balls his seat! Labour want to take us into the Euro at a time when it is collapsing! So Tories abandoning a successful political party for a one man band is backwards and narrow minded! There are bigger threats out there than Europe.
If Ed Miliband cannot take back Corby he cannot take back Downing Street. If we lose Corby we can still win in 2015, but it will be harder. So I urge all Conservatives up and down the country to prepare for one hell of a fight. Corby was a battle ground seat in 2010, it will be again in 2015, let’s give us the head start on the fight, let us show that the Conservative party is not out the fight yet, let us show we can win a second term, a Conservative majority term!
