A defeated Ex-Bolton Conservative MP has admitted the last government “didn’t deliver” what people were “rightfully expecting.”
Chris Green had held Bolton West for the Tories since his election in 2015, but was swept aside in a nationwide landslide that saw the seat go to Labour’s Phil Brickell.
Speaking to the BBC’s Politics North West, Mr Green said voters had turned on his party because of its failure to deliver on its promises.
He said: “Levelling up hasn’t come on anything like it should.
“That promise, along with the Northern Powerhouse, hasn’t delivered what people were rightfully expecting.
Bolton West was won by Labour's Phil Brickell (Image: Phil Taylor)
“But yeah, I think we get held to account, the Conservative Party got held to account because we didn’t deliver.”
At the previous election in 2019, Mr Green had defeated his Labour opponent Julie Hilling by nearly 9,000 votes, with a total of more than 27,000.
But at last Thursday’s poll, he scored just 12,400, nearly 5,000 behind Labour’s Mr Brickell.
Mr Green said: “People had expectations, particularly when we had an 80-seat majority, people had expectations that we would deliver at that stage.
“I could make certain excuses. I won’t, there’s no point.”
The 50-year-old, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Liverpool, said the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine had all been unexpected challenges but this still did not account for the loss.
He said: “I think, even given those challenges we didn’t deliver enough, we didn’t communicate effectively enough either.”
The Nigel Farage-led Reform UK also put up a strong showing in Bolton West, where candidate Dylan Evans took a total of 8,517 votes.
But Mr Green said even this did not account for his defeat.
He said: “If Reform didn’t stand, I still would have lost.
“There were some votes, yes, that went to Reform from the Conservatives, more than from Labour, but Labour lost votes to Reform as well.
“And there are people who would never have voted who voted Reform, and so I wouldn’t have had those other votes.”
Mr Green said another concern had been the “abysmally low turnout” across the board, which should also worry the new government.
He said: “Even though Labour has an absolutely colossal majority in Westminster it’s still on a very low share of the vote.”
Mr Green also said a backlash over its stance on Gaza had cost Labour in seats like Blackburn, which was won by an independent.
He said: “But I think this goes back to a broader point when you look at Keir Starmer’s majority, or his vote in his own seat which went from 36,000 down to 18,000.
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“It also shows the Labour Party right across the country is affected by this issue as well as a number of others.”
Mr Green said he had been disappointed by losing his seat but that he had seen it coming for some time.
He added: “It’s always a big personal disappointment, but we could see the opinion polls for quite a while.
“That anticipation was there and so when the result comes through on the night the disappointment comes through but I think the writing was on the wall for quite a while.
“So I’m going to have to work out what I do next now.”
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