FIRST and foremost, I would like to thank all 23,178 people in Warrington South who voted Labour at the general election.

The Labour vote went up significantly here, but sadly not quite enough to beat the sitting Tory MP.

I remain convinced that families and businesses in this town would be better served by a good local Labour MP and better off with a Labour government, but it was not to be this time.

My superb team of volunteers and I ran a positive grassroots campaign and we could not have done any more.

I am very grateful to them all.

Warrington is my home and I’m staying here, and my instinct is to fight this seat again in 2020.

Certainly, I’ll continue to work closely with Labour colleagues at the Town Hall.

And I’ll continue to hold the Tories to account for the £15 million deficit at Warrington Hospital; for trebling tuition fees and for an unfunded Twitter pledge to scrap road tolls on the Mersey bridges etc.

Second, I want to hear the views of Warrington Guardian readers about the local and national Labour campaign.

Especially floating voters who finally decided to vote Conservative.

As Labour rebuilds and chooses a new leader, we need to listen to people more carefully than ever.

Please send me your views at info@nickbent.org and keep in touch via Facebook (search for Warrington South Labour).

It may take me a while, but I promise that every email will get a personal reply.

Nick Bent

Labour Parliamentary Spokesperson Great Sankey