Melanie Onn rebuilds Labour's red wall in Grimsby and Cleethorpes (2024)

Published

5 July 2024

Labour has clawed back Grimsby and Sc*nthorpe from the Conservatives, mirroring the national picture on a dismal night for Rishi Sunak's party.

In 2019, Grimsby turned blue for the first time since World War Two, ousting Labour's Melanie Onn and pushing out another brick in the "red wall".

Five years on, Ms Onn has secured her return to Westminster by winning the newly created seat of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, with a majority of nearly 5,000.

Sir Nic Dakin has also returned for Labour in Sc*nthorpe, where he lost out to the Tories in 2019.

His Labour colleague Lee Pitcher won Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, while the Conservatives' Martin Vickers took Brigg and Immingham, another newly created constituency.

Ms Onn secured 15,336 votes to the Conservatives' 8,269. Reform UK came second with 10,533.

She said she was "really thrilled" and "looking forward to getting on with some hard work".

Items on her to-do list included "banging the drum for the high streets", "getting the A180 fixed" and "tackling antisocial behaviour that is blighting people's lives".

It was "an opportunity to work on some pledges" and Labour was "in a very, very different place", Ms Onn added.

Addressing the rise of Reform UK, which now has four MPs – including in Boston and Skegness – Ms Onn said it reflected "the collapse of the Conservative vote".

She conceded Nigel Farage's party had "certainly captured a bit of the mood in the country".

Sir Nic used part of his victory speech to pay tribute to the outgoing Conservative MP, Holly Mumby-Croft.

"It has not been the easiest of years," he said. "And Holly has served the area well."

Labour now had "a huge responsibility" to bring about change that "improves people's lives" and "stabilises the economy", he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Pitcher – victorious in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme – said he was "still in shock", but was now looking forward to representing constituents.

Much of the area was in the former Don Valley constituency, which had been held by the Conservatives.

Mr Pitcher said one of his priorities would be supporting the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which he believes will benefit local people who at present have to travel further afield to take flights.

In Brigg and Immingham, the Conservatives' Martin Vickers held off Labour's Najmul Hussain, by a margin of 3,243 votes.

Mr Vickers, who represented Cleethorpes for 14 years, said he was "very pleased" to have secured the win, but "disappointed by what is happening nationally".

He was "looking forward to getting down there [to Westminster] and down to business", he added.

Analysis by Sarah Sanderson, Political Reporter, BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

For two Labour candidates in northern Lincolnshire, this general election was a chance to fight and take back the seats they lost to the Conservatives back in 2019.

And they did just that.

Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes is made up of two former constituencies, one of them being Great Grimsby – a safe Labour seat for decades until the Conservatives took it during the "Get Brexit Done" campaign four-and-a-half years ago.

This year, voters brought back Melanie Onn as their Labour MP for the new seat, but it was a hard-fought race, with Reform UK gaining momentum in second place.

In Sc*nthorpe, the Labour MP who lost his seat back in 2019 has also returned.

Sir Nic Dakin said Labour’s "vote for change" message resonated with people living in and around the town, where the future of the steelworks is a vital issue.

Elsewhere, two other new parliamentary seats – Brigg and Immingham and Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme – were created in northern Lincolnshire as part of the Boundary Commission review last year.

Martin Vickers, the former Cleethorpes MP, will return to Westminster in Brigg and Immingham.

However, over in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, Labour elbowed the Conservatives out of the picture.

The priority for the Labour party now, which has swept up most of the parliamentary seats in northern Lincolnshire, is to prove to their voters that they can deliver on the pledges promised in their manifesto.

This shifting political tide south of the Humber estuary is reflective of the change seen nationwide, as Sir Keir Starmer leads a new Labour government into No 10.

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