Expense Scandal MP holds Selly Oak seat

• May. 10 by Clare Anne (0)

Labour’s Steve McCabe retained his seat in the Birmingham constituency of Selly Oak, for the fourth term – despite a Conservative swing of 6.2%.

McCabe, who stood as MP for Hall Green from 1997 until 2010, won 17,950 votes (38.5%) in the area, a loss of 7.6% on the last general election. The Conservative candidate Nigel Dawkins, managed to get 14,468 votes, a share of 31.1%. Dave Radcliffe of the Liberal Democrats won 10,371 votes (22.3%) and were down 0.7% on the last election.

As for the minor parties, BNP candidate Lynette Orton won just 3.9% (1,820 votes) on the parties first term in Selly Oak. Jeffrey Burgess of UKIP won 1,131 votes (2.4%, up 0.1%), and Christian Party candidate Samual Leeds won just 159 votes (0.3%) in his first term in the constituency.

It was bad news for the Green party and James Burn who came sixth out of seven candidates with just 1.4% of the votes (664), a decrease of 2.4%.

Steve McCabe has big plans for Birmingham:

“We’ll take projects like the hydrogen fuel cell, at the University of Birmingham, from the lab to the factory and create thousands of new jobs in green energy businesses. We’ll unleash the talents in digital media, film and arts and build the medical technology businesses of the future – so that the city of a thousand trades is once more a centre of creativity and manufacturing.”

However, McCabe’s win is somewhat tarnished.

He recently found himself caught up in the MP’s expenses scandal after allegedly claiming £5,000 for a new bathroom – something which he has strongly denied but still rings true in many Selly Oak voters minds.

McCabe has thus far declined BirminghamRecycled’s offer of an interview.