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.