Blackburn

Blackburn (Constituency)
Locations	Lancashire, England

Blackburn is a parliamentary constituency in Lancashire, England, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Kate Hollern of the Labour Party.

From 1979 to 2015, Blackburn was represented by Jack Straw who was in the Shadow Cabinets of Labour leaders Neil Kinnock and John Smith and in the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

2005 general election

Blackburn's then MP, Jack Straw, was primarily challenged in the 2005 general election by the Conservative Party, but the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, also stood for election in the seat as an Independent. Murray said:

"I've been approached by several people in the Asian community who are under huge pressure from Labour activists [talking up the BNP's chances] to apply for a postal vote rather than a ballot vote and then hand their postal vote over to the Labour Party."

Over 50% more people used postal votes in the 2005 general election in Blackburn than in 2001. The BNP had not stood in the previous two elections, but this time had a candidate, who polled 5.4% of the vote, and beat Murray to come fourth. Both were outperformed by the Liberal Democrats in third place, and the Conservatives, who remained second. Straw held on comfortably, albeit with a reduced majority; his winning share of 42% is the smallest since the seat became a single-member constituency.

2015 general election

In August 2011, Straw announced he had no plans to retire, despite hitting 65 earlier that month.

On 25 October 2013, Straw announced that he would stand down as Blackburn's MP at the next election.

In March 2014, Kate Hollern was selected, via an all women shortlist, as the candidate for Labour for the 2015 general election, and held the seat. She was re-elected in the 2017 and 2019 general elections.

2024 general election

On 16 April 2024, Craig Murray announced that he would again stand for Blackburn at the next general election, this time as the Workers Party of Britain candidate.

In the UK/General election/2024 on 4 July 2017, there are nine candidates standing at the Blackburn constituency:

Kate Hollern, Labour Party

Adnan Hussain, Independent

Jamie McGowan, Conservative and Unionist Party

Denise Morgan, Green Party of England and Wales

Craig Murray, Workers Party of Britain

Tiger Patel, Independent

Natasha Shah, Independent

Tommy Temperley, Reform UK

Adam Waller-Slack, Liberal Democrats

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:I Stand in Blackburn	blog post	16 April 2024	Craig Murray	I am going to need help – leafleting, canvassing, manning offices and the many myriad tasks of an election campaign. I am buoyed by the solid start we have in support across all communities in Blackburn. We are going to give Starmer a roasting, we are going to take on the zionist monopoly of power, and it is going to be great fun!
Document:The Rejection of Starmerism	blog post	5 July 2024	Craig Murray	"I don’t think any Prime Minister has ever come to power with less popular enthusiasm than Keir Starmer."
Document:What Really Happens in Blackburn	blog post	24 June 2024	Craig Murray	"When my candidacy for Blackburn was announced in March, Jack Straw issued an attack on me on 3 April 2024, stating that I had 'no cause' to stand in Blackburn. Then lo and behold, two months later after the election was called Jack Straw’s old fixer turns up with an 'Independent Candidate' to split the pro-Palestine vote."

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 16 April 2024.
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