Row in Hartlepool as Tories and UKIP Demand Each Other Stand Down to Defeat Labour

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has slammed the Tories for “cynical electioneering” as the two parties called on each other to stand down in Hartlepool to help depose Labour who have held the constituency since 1964.

Labour held off UKIP in Hartlepool — which voted for Brexit by a massive 70 per cent — by just over 3,000 votes in the 2015 general election. UKIP are the official opposition in the seat and needed a swing of 4 per cent to snatch it from Labour.

However, the Conservative group leader on Hartlepool Borough Council, Councillor Ray Martin-Wells, pointed to internet polls claiming UKIP’s chances of winning the seat in the 2017 election are “extremely low”.

Writing to UKIP Chairman Councillor John Tennant, he asked UKIP candidate Phillip Broughton to stand down, the Hartlepool Mail reports.

“Following on from UKIP’s decision not to stand in Middlesbrough South, Tynemouth and Berwick, we would respectfully ask you to withdraw your parliamentary candidate in Hartlepool for the forthcoming General Election on 8th June 2017,” Mr. Martin-Wells wrote.

But Councillor Tennant disagreed, accusing the Conservatives of “cynical electioneering of the worst kind” and called on the Conservatives to withdraw their own candidate, Carl Jackson.

He said: “Ray Martin-Wells wrote to me and asked us to step down from the election and I said no absolutely not, because if you look at the facts it is the Conservatives who should be standing down if anybody was.

“It’s clear UKIP is the opposition in Hartlepool, we are far stronger than the Conservatives,” pointing to UKIP’s strong performance in 2015.

“UKIP have outperformed the Conservatives at every set of elections, of every kind, since 2013,” he added.

Last month, UKIP leader Paul Nuttall said UKIP would not field candidates against “good Brexiteers” from other parties in the general election, thereby putting “country before party”.

“This will not be an order coming down from the top of the party, I will speak to branches over the coming weeks and we will make discussions,” he also stressed.