Friday 8th June 2001, 0430 BST
As
you were in Bristol elections |
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The triumphant
Dawn Primarolo (centre) after the Bristol South count |
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It
was a night of low turn-outs, which saw no change to any of Bristol's
MPs - although some did see a slimmed-down majority.
The most exciting of the seats was Bristol West, where Valerie Davey
held on to her seat in the three-way marginal for the Labour Party.
The Liberal Democrats, who were tipped to win the seat, narrowly pushed
the Conservatives into third place.
Mrs Davey thanked her fellow candidates for a "mainly good-natured
fight". The turn out was 66% compared to 73% in 1997.
Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo still gained a huge margin in Bristol
South of over 14, 000 - but this was still down from '97. The turn
out this time was just 56.5%.
Hard at work
counting up the ballot papers in Bristol South. |
Despite the lower
majority, Ms Primarolo was still happy with the result:
"The majority is still very strong, and the people of Bristol
South overwhelmingly voted for the Labour Party.
"Now we can build on the employment we have provided for our
constituency, our strong economy and investment into public services."
Elsewhere Labour's nationwide landslide was mirrored with Dan Norris,
Doug Naysmith and Jean Corston holding Wansdyke, Bristol Northwest
and Bristol East respectively.
Valerie Davey was happy that Bristol was once again a mostly Labour
city:
"I just knew today it was going to be very good. Bristol is once
again represented by Labour MPs."
"We were talking about the things the British people wanted to
know about. They want public services that are worthy of us all in
the 21st century."
Liam Fox, the Shadow Health secretary retained Woodspring for the
Tories - the only seat for the party in the Bristol area. |
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