New Tipton and Wednesbury MP Antonia Bance demands ‘what we are owed’

Labor regained the seat of Tipton and Wednesbury from the Tories in a hattrick of wins for the party in Sandwell. Labor topped the polls in the newly created Tipton and Wednesbury constituency, which replaced the old West Bromwich West seat, with a comfortable victory on Thursday (July 4).

Labor candidate Antonia Bance received 11,755 votes on Thursday, giving the party a 3,385-vote majority over the Tories, with Tory candidate Shaun Bailey finishing second on 8,370 votes. Reform almost helped the Conservatives into second place, with candidate Jack Sabharwal just short by 8,019 votes.

Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey failed in his bid for re-election in Tipton and Wednesbury, with the Conservatives failing to capitalize on their historic victory in 2019 when the party won in the old seat of West Bromwich West for the first time in its history. The winner and new Labor MP for Tipton and Wednesbury, Antonia Bance, said: “It’s been a long 14 years, 14 years of chasing funding for our cut, cut and cut councils, 14 years of the NHS on its knees, 14 years of too many. of our children do not have enough to eat.

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“Today is the start of a Labor government, we hope. We will transform the lives of so many working class children in places like this.

“We have done it before and we will do it again… I will be a local MP who puts these towns first and the values ​​I take with me to parliament are solidarity, equality and dignity. Dignity above all because we are a proud, working class community. We don’t want charity, we want our due. We want a future back.”

Mark Redding for the Greens came fourth with 1,509 votes. Independent candidates Abdul Husen and Mohammed Hussain-Billa received 660 and 945 votes, in sixth and fifth places respectively, and Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Rochell finished seventh and last with 592 votes.

Labor won all three seats in Sandwell – keeping hold of the recently revived Smethwick seat and winning West Bromwich back from the Tories. The Conservatives won two historic victories in West Bromwich East and West Bromwich West in 2019 – winning the seats for the first time.

Ms Bance, who is head of campaigns and communications at the Trades Union Congress (TUC), was a surprise choice when the shortlist was revealed in June.