Blackburn
 Blackburn  (constituency)   | |
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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.[1] 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.[2]
2024 general election
On 16 April 2024, Craig Murray announced that he will stand at the next general election as the Workers Party of Britain candidate in Blackburn.[3]
Other declared candidates are Kate Hollern (Labour Party), Paul Topping (SDP) and Adam Waller-Slack (LibDem).
References
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