LOCAL ELECTIONS 2010: Labour -Victory to party that showed fighting spirit

Published: 14 May 2010
by ROISIN GADELRAB

HOW did they do it? While Labour seats across the country were turning blue, Islington North and South MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry were not only winning, but winning big.

Ms Thornberry turned her slim majority of 484 into 3,000, while Mr Corbyn’s increased to 8,158. Ms Thornberry put the success down to her party’s local record, helped by the recent announcement that the Whittington Hospital A&E department would be saved.

She said: “We’re in front of the curve. Islington has gone through the worst of people being fed up with Labour and come out the other side.”

Mr Corbyn said it was a lesson to his own party. “In Islington we’re giving a message to the Labour movement and the party,” he added. There’s been a big swing to Labour in both constituencies. 

“We fought the battles that have to be fought on the Whittington and on so many other issues.”

Some Lib Dems believe Labour was so panicked by the Nick Clegg effect that it drafted in hundreds of activists from outside the borough.

Islington South Lib Dem candidate Bridget Fox blamed her defeat on residents voting Tory. She said: “The Labour Party have held the seat perhaps with the inadvertent help of people voting Conservative.”