Fabian Hamilton arrives at count

Yorkshire Evening Post

Veteran MP Fabian Hamilton has arrived at the count in Leeds.  The Labour MP has been in politics since 1997.  If a recent YouGov poll is correct, he can expect to win a comfortable majority in Leeds North East.

Transcript

00:00Fabian Hamilton you're the MP standing for re-election in Leeds North East, how

00:05are you feeling tonight? We've just had the exit poll that's predicting a

00:09Labour landslide, there must be a lot of optimism for you.

00:12Yes I mean it's been reflected on the doorstep throughout the campaign, we've

00:15had a lot of very strong support because this is my ninth election as candidate,

00:19hopefully my eighth victory and I'm the longest-serving MP in Leeds if I win

00:24tonight. But yes we're optimistic, it's good news for the Labour Party and I

00:29think much more important is the seats that we were hoping to win nationwide,

00:33the ones we actually do win that give us a majority in Parliament. So you know I'd

00:39hope we win North East Leeds but we want it when we're at our lowest ebb. So if

00:44we start winning seats that we've not won before that's going to mean the

00:47difference between not winning and winning an overall majority. When the

00:52polls are as they are and with this exit poll being so in favour of a Labour

00:57majority, does that breed complacency at all? No we've been very careful not to be

01:02complacent and I think for all politicians you must never take the

01:06electorate for granted. One of the things I've learnt in the 27 years that I've

01:10served so far is that if you start taking the electorate for granted and you

01:14start assuming things then that's the road to disaster. You've got to

01:18constantly be talking to your electors and making sure that they know you're

01:23serving them and not your own career. What can the people of Leeds North East

01:29expect if you're re-elected? What will be your focus? Well a number of focuses. I

01:34think firstly local transport. I'll double down on that. Obviously we were

01:39making some progress before the election at last. There are various campaigns

01:43I've taken up on predatory marriage, on the abuse of lasting power of attorney

01:47which I now hope will be successful with a Labour government. We were struggling a

01:52bit with the last government even though there were non-political issues.

01:54I think the Health Service, Chapel Alaston Hospital of course. It was agreed

02:00it could have a huge extension, a huge extra building. That was cut by the

02:05current Conservative government. I'm hoping that Labour will restore that

02:09because the patients in my constituency desperately need that hospital as they

02:13do throughout Leeds. Thank you very much.

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