1940: Over 500 men between the ages of 20 and 23 registered for 'call-up' at the Peterborough Labour Exchange on this Saturday. Of these only five registered a conscientious objection. In the end 490 actually signed up. 64 with the Navy and 130 with the RAF. The rest offered no definite preference. Not surprisingly, bearing in mind the industrial landscape of Peterborough, there was more than the usual number of recruits who were in reserved occupations - mainly engineering. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
Following a snap election called by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, the Conservative candidate in Peterborough Stewart Jackson, who had been the Member of Parliament for 12 Years, lost his seat to Labour's Fiona Onasanya by 607 votes. The national result of the election meant that the Conservatives lost their Commons majority and were the largest party in a hung Parliament. The Conservative party remained in government by making a pact with 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs.
The General Strike began on 4 May 1926 and lasted nine days until 12 May 1926 and was the first of its kind. The number of strikers was overwhelming - falling between 1.5 and 1.75 million people. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. The strike chartered new territory for workers by closing mines, transport, newspapers, docks and power stations.
The Conservative Government led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was prepared for the strike and enlisted volunteers to replace striking workers and maintain essential services. The strike ended in defeat for the workers but still gave them a sense of their power and in the 1929 General Election the Labour party won more seats than any other party.
Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a General Election, to be run on 12th December 2019, after failing to get parliament to approve a revised withdrawal agreement from the European Union by the end of October 2019. Mr Johnson needed to obtain an overall majority in the election in order to accomplish his main goal of taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union by the end of January 2020.
The election resulted in a Conservative win with a landslide majority of 80 seats (365 seats in total), their largest majority since 1987, with the party making a net gain of 48 seats. Many of these seats were gained in the north of the country, in what was considered Labour’s heartland. Labour won 202 seats, the Scottish National Party 48 and the Liberal Democrats 11 with their leader Jo Swinson losing her seat.
In Peterborough:
Labour’s Lisa Forbes, who had won a contentious by- election in June 2019 narrowly beating Mike Green of the Brexit Party, lost to Paul Bristow of the Conservative Party, with the Brexit Party coming fourth.
Full results:
Paul Bristow (Conservative) - 22,334
Lisa Forbes (Labour) - 19,754
Beki Sellick (Liberal Democrat) - 2,334
Mike Greene (Brexit Party) - 2,127
Joseph Wells (Green) – 728
Luke Ferguson (Independent) - 260
Tom Rogers (Christian Peoples Alliance) - 151
The Very Raving Mr P (The Official Monster Raving Loony Party) - 113
Turnout – 47 899 (66.01%) Majority – 2 580
Reference:
https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/elections/election-details
Following the successful Recall Petition against Fiona Onasanya after her conviction for perverting the course of justice a by-election was run on 6 June 2019. Mike Green of the Brexit Party was the favourite to win but the election was narrowly won by Labour’s Lisa Forbes with Mike Green in second place.
Results:
Labour Party - Lisa Forbes, Votes:10,484 /30.91%
Brexit Party - Mike Greene, Votes 9,801/28.89 %
Conservative Party - Paul Bristow, Votes 7,243/21.35%
Liberal Democrats - Beki Sellick, Votes 4,159 /12.26 %
Green Party - Joseph Wells, Votes 1,035/ 3.05%
Ten other candidates stood.