Thank you Rushmere

It was very humbling on Thursday, to be given such a massive vote of support by the residents of Rushmere Ward, Ipswich:

RUSHMERE

CHAMBERS Conservative 746
NELSON Green 138
ROSS Labour 1293
WHITMORE LibDem 89



This gives me a majority of 547, slightly more than my 13 of 2008!

The turnout nationally was poor but in Rushmere we had a turnout of 37%, the second highest in the town.

I would like to say that Chris Chambers, my Conservative candidate is the sort of young person we want involved in local politics but I do believe he was misled about the aim of their campaign, a view that I seem to share with leading Tory blogger Gavin Maclure.

In Ipswich, Labour gained 4 seats (3 off the Tories and one off the Lib Dems) and the Greens pushed the Lib Dems back into fourth place in a number of seats.
Now the hard work starts plus our campaign to win more seats in the Suffolk County Council elections next year.

I would like to thank all my Labour colleagues for their support over the last few months but a special mention to Rushmere residents like Gemma and Sandra who volunteered to help over the campaign – I will continue to work as hard as I can for the residents of Rushmere.

Not all bad news! And a big thank you.

Well after 4 years of campaigning, even with the national disaster I managed to win the Rushmere ward seat for Labour,
I have been away since the election and it will take me a few more days to get over the fact that I can now represent the people of this ward with far more effect.
I will blog later in the week with my thoughts on the poor national results, the brilliant results we had in Ipswich (3 gains) and my own victory in Rushmere.
I must thank most of the constituents who voted for me , and the support I have had from all Labour colleagues, especially those from the North East branch- John Mowles, Sandy Martin and Neil McDonald.
I must admit I did have a tear in my eye when I was declared the Ward Councillor for Rushmere, all I could think of was my late mother and father- Peter and Annie Ross - if I can be half as good a Councillor as they were the people of Rushmere will be happy.
Thank you for putting- "A cross for Ross for Rushmere".

Result:
Alasdair Ross- Labour- 1,026 votes
Paul Carter- Conservative- 1,013 votes
Leslie Nicholls- Lib Dem - 294 votes
Turnout- 39.04%
A majority of just 13- but the Tories had a majority of 104 last year!