Perry Barr held strongly by Labour

• May. 7 by Liam Richardson (0)

The Perry Barr Constituency of Birmingham was left firmly in the hands of Labour Candidate, Khalid Mahmood after a night that saw a lot of surprises including the first ever Green party MP.

Mr Mahmood received 50.3% of the vote which is a 3.3% swing from what he had in 2005, taking votes away from the Liberal Democrats and other smaller parties.

Despite his comedy acts, William Norton of the Conservatives however did close the gap on the second place Liberal Democrats by improving by 4.6% to end up only .7% behind Karen Hamilton, who along with every other candidate, apart from Mr Mahmood, were new faces in this general election.

Mrs Hamilton did however retain her place as the representative of  the Perry Barr ward.

The UK Independence Party lead by Melvin Ward, did improve on the last election by gaining 4.0% of the vote which is a 2.1% swing from before, the Socialist Labour fronted by John Tyrrell party however fell by 1% compared to last time.

On the issues of the Environmental, Mr Mahmood has been fairly cautious in the past. He was moderately against laws being imposed to combat climate change, but during the recent Hustings Debate he made it quite clear he felt that fast food chains should be taxed due to the litter their customers create.

He also voiced the need for jobs to be created within the “green sector” to help established sustainable living, which he believed would also help the economy.

Despite the rest of the country, nothing much changed for Perry Barr. On the Environmental front the Liberal Democrats would of been the choice vote throughout the UK.

Within Perry Barr though, Khalid Mahmood has suggested a number of fresh ideas to combat the environmental problems the constituency suffers from and the future state of the region remains positive .