Blair storms to victory
Hague quits as Tory leader
June 8, 2001
Tony Blair was returned to power early today with an historic second landslide - and William Hague resigned as leader of the Conservatives following his party's disastrous showing.
In a dramatic statement outside Conservative Central Office in London at around 8am he said he would stand down as soon as a successor had been chosen. He said he had decided to quit despite calls from senior members of the for a period of reflection.
However, millions of voters took the shine off Labour's victory by staying away from the polls. Labour shrugged aside the low turnout across the country, declaring that they had 'won the battle for ideas'. It was the first time in Labour's 100-year history that it has clinched the chance of two full terms in office.
Quickest ever count
The Liberal Democrats had a successful election - taking 18 per cent of the vote compared to 17.2 per cent in the last General Election of 1997. Their biggest victories were in Chesterfield where they took the sear formerly held by Tony Benn, the retiring Labour MP. In Winchester the Lib Dems increased their majority of just a handful of votes in 1997 to 9,634.
The race to be the first constituency to declare its new MP was won by Sunderland South where the winner, Chris Mullin, was announced after a 42 minute count - the quickest ever.
Results from around the region with votes cast:
Bishop Auckland Derek Foster (Lab) 22680
Blaydon John David McWilliam (Lab) 20340
Blyth Valley Ronald Campbell (Lab) 20627
Darlington Alan Milburn (Lab) 22479
Durham City Gerry Steinberg (Lab) 23254
Durham North Kevan Jones (Lab) 25920
Durham North-West Hilary Armstrong (Lab) 24526
Easington John Cummings (Lab) 25360
Gateshead East and Washington West Joyce Quin (Lab) 22903
Harrogate Phil Willis (LibDem) 23445
Hartlepool Peter Mandelson (Lab) 22506
Hexham Peter Atkinson (Con) 18917
Houghton and Washington East Fraser Kemp (Lab) 24628
Jarrow Stephen Hepburn (Lab) 22777
Middlesbrough Stuart Bell (Lab) 22783
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Ashok Kumar (Lab) 24321
Newcastle Central James Cousins (Lab) 19169
Newcastle Easr Nick Brown (Lab) 20642
Newcastle North Douglas Henderson (Lab) 21874
North Tyneside Stephen Byers (Lab) 26127
Redcar Vera Baird (Lab) 23026
Richmond William Hague (Con) 25951
Ryedale John Greenway (Con) 20711
Scarborough Lawrie Quinn (Lab) 22426
Sedgefield Tony Blair (Lab) 26110
Stockton North Frank Cook (Lab) 22470
Stockton North South Dari Taylor (Lab) 23414
South Shields David Milliband (Lab) 19230
Sunderland North William Etherington (Lab) 18685
Sunderland South Christopher Mullin (Lab) 19921
Tyne Bridge David Clelland (Lab) 18345
Tynemouth Alan Campbell (Lab) 23364
Wansbeck Denis Murphy (Lab) 21617
York Hugh Bayley (Lab) 25072
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Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Sue Kelly