Clegg: Oldham East was a ‘big ask’
Overturning Labour’s 103-vote majority in Oldham East and Saddleworth was always going to be a “big ask”, Nick Clegg has said.
The Liberal Democrat leader issued a statement early this morning, shortly after it was confirmed that Labour candidate Debbie Abrahams had beaten Lib Dem challenger Elwyn Watkins with a 3,558 majority.
Mr Clegg thanked Mr Watkins, the man who had instigated the court case which saw Phil Woolas ousted from parliament, for having run an “exceptional campaign”.
He said the contest had been “very hard-fought” and praised activists and volunteers who had “confounded our critics” by taking Labour on in the seat.
“It was always going to be a big ask to take this seat from Labour, given the circumstances,” Mr Clegg said.
“We are undertaking some enormously difficult decisions because Labour left Britain’s economy in a mess and we are now forced to clean up after them.”
In an echo of his autumn conference speech, where the deputy prime minister urged his party to get through a period of unpopularity, he suggested the situation would improve by the time of the next general election.
“By 2015, I hope that the people of Oldham and Saddleworth will see, like everyone else in the country, that the difficult choices we made were the right ones and that Britain is in better shape than when we entered government,” he finished.
The Lib Dems’ share of the vote increased from 31.6% in 2010 to 31.9% yesterday. Mr Watkins took 11,160 votes to Ms Abrahams’ 14,718.
