Yardley remains yellow as Hemming retains Lib Dem seat, but no green in sight

• May. 8 by Mitchell Jones (1)

The Liberal Democrats have retained their seat in Birmingham Yardley with an increased majority over their 2005 election result.

John Hemming, who gained the seat five years ago from Labour candidate Estelle Morris, was re-elected as MP for the constituency with 16,162 votes and a 39.6% share of the votes.

Their majority over the second-placed Labour party, represented by Lynnette Kelly, rose to 3,002 from the 2,672 they won in 2005. The total voter turnout dropped to 56.5% which was down from the last election by 1.2%.

The Conservatives, British National Party, UK Independence Party and National Front all fielded candidates for the election. The Green Party did not, nor have they ever within the constituency. They did, however, have a representative in South Yardley for the local elections but came 6th out of seven candidates, beating only the National Front but failing to beat the BNP, UKIP, Labour, Tory and the Lib Dems.

Despite the absence of the Green Party, re-elected Hemming has a strong record for voting in favour of environmental bills such as the Climate Change Bill which was set up to create “a legally binding target for reducing UK carbon dioxide emission by at least 26 per cent by 2020 and at least 60 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.”