The runners up in Wirral’s 2010 parliamentary elections reveal their thoughts on collecting 50,000 votes but no cigar

Jun 23 2010 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

CUMULATIVELY they collected almost 50,000 votes in May’s election, but what happens to those Wirral candidates who just miss out on securing a seat in Parliament?

For Phil Davies, Wirral West candidate, there’s plenty to do as a councillor and deputy leader of the Labour group on Wirral Council.

But Wallasey Conservative candidate Leah Fraser no longer has even that to fall back on.

The two time parliamentary contender lost out to Labour’s Angela Eagle, again, and saw her Liscard council seat disappear on the same night, leaving her politically empty handed.

Leah declined to speak to the Wirral News, having polled a respectable 13,071 votes on May 6.

Jeff Clarke was the Tory hope in Wirral South.

Defeated by only 531 votes, he said he “enjoyed the campaign” and would stand again.

Jeff Clarke said: “It was clear it was going to be tight but I never thought I’d lose, if I’m honest, until I was told I was about to.”

Phil Davies, defending a seat held by party colleague, Stephen Hesford since 1997, was the only candidate to see the seat he was contending change hands as new Conservative MP, Esther McVey scooped the constituency on a night of gains for the Tories.

But Phil felt his team fought a good fight.

He told Wirral News: “Given that I only had six weeks as the candidate and unfavourable boundary changes, to receive 14,290 votes and to restrict the Tories to a majority of just over 2,000, in a notional Tory seat, was a great achievement.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign and had a superb team to support me.”

Phil wishes he had been afforded “more time to promote my candidacy” and recognised the Conservatives saw Wirral West as one of their top targets.

In Birkenhead, one of the safest Labour seats in the country, Conservative candidate Andrew Gilbert pulled off a success of sorts by securing second place from the Liberal Democrats.

Andrew, who polled 6,687 votes, told the News he was “delighted”, saying, “this was the first time the actual number of people voting Conservative went up in Birkenhead since 1979”.

He said: “I would always have liked to have been able to do more.

“But I know that we made the best use of the resources we had and for that reason I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

One outcome that took most observers by surprise was the creation of a Con-Lib coalition in Government.

Phil Davies predicts it will “become extremely unpopular” in the wake of cuts and doubts it will last five years, while Andrew Gilbert believes it has made a “strong start”.

All plan to continue in politics, with Andrew Gilbert currently writing a paper on postwar Conservative marriage and divorce policy and planning to “sit on the green benches at some point in the future”.