The fall-out of the Hamas/Israel conflict has seen mass resignations of councillors which – along with redrawn Parliamentary constituencies – make the final results harder to call
East Lancashire’s six Parliamentary constituencies are a key battleground in July 4’s General Election and are seen as a key indicator in every national poll as to which way the political wind is blowing. Hyndburn, Rossendale and Darwen and Pendle are know as 'bellwether seats', which often reflect which party will form the government or as in 1992 paved the way for Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour landslide.
The fall-out of the Hamas/Israel conflict has seen mass resignations of councillors in three of East Lancashire’s boroughs which – along with redrawn Parliamentary constituencies and an unusually large number of candidates – make the final results harder to call than usual. In the Labour stronghold of Blackburn – the only seat to resist Boris Johnson’s blue ‘Let’s Get Brexit Done’ tide in 2019 – defending MP Kate Hollern must be hoping having eight opponents will split the non-Labour vote.
Mrs Hollern will be seeking to put the cost of living and state of the NHS at the centre of the election battle. In neighbouring Hyndburn defending Tory MP Sara Britcliffe will be hoping that despite Labour taking control of the borough council last month the dramatic 2022 split in the party and fall out over deselecting former MP Graham Jones in favour of Blackpool councillor Sarah Smith will give her a chink of opportunity to squeeze through back to Westminster.
In Burnley Antony Higginbotham – the town’s first Tory MP for more than a century and ‘Red Wall’ demolition poster boy in 2019 – is hoping that the Labour Gaza split and former Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle’s candidacy could also give him a very unlikely lifeline.
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