THE closure of the Corus Teesside Cast Products plant has delivered a fatal blow to Vera Baird’s hopes of holding onto her Redcar seat.

Liberal Democrat Ian Swales swept to victory with a massive 6,000 vote majority - overturning Labour’s 12,000 majority - a massive swing of 21%.


Ms Baird has defiantly stated that she does not intend to turn her back on the town and will continue her fight to try and save jobs at the Corus plant.

However, Mr Swales believes that the victory has shown that the people of Teesside are fed up with the Labour party.

He said: “This is a great result, we have worked very hard to win this seat and it has been a hard fight. There is no denying that the closure of TCP has had an affect on the vote but that is not the only reason.

“We were surprised by the size of the majority, we were expecting a really close fight, but now the work really starts.”

Ms Baird was magnanimous in defeat but maintained she would not be leaving the area despite her heavy defeat.

She said: “Obviously I am very disappointed with the result but there is still work to be done in Redcar. I don’t think there is anything else that I could have done in this campaign - the closure of TCP has had a massive affect on the votes.”

Vera Baird 13,741 Kevin Broughton 1,475 Martin Bulmer 1,875 Steve Mastin 5,790 Ian Swales 18,955 Hannah Walter 127 Turnout 62.6%