Former Labour deputy mayor of Doncaster says she plans to vote Tory in tomorrow's general election

Margaret Ward, a former Labour councillor and deputy to former directly-elected mayor Martin Winter, told Conservative party chairman James Cleverly on a visit to the pit village of Edlington she would be backing the Tories.

Mr Cleverly was out in the Don Valley constituency supporting Tory candidate Nick Fletcher before he visited Doncaster Market.

Fletcher, who is chairman of Doncaster Conservatives, is hoping to become the first Tory MP elected in Doncaster for 64 years.

Anthony Barber was the last Doncaster Tory MP voting in back in 1955.

The candidate took Mr Cleverly to see former Labour deputy mayor who runs a shop along Bungalow Road. She said she couldn’t vote for Labour under Corbyn and was backing the Tories.

She told Tory canvassers: “I was deputy mayor under Martin Winter for about two and half years and then I lost my election. I had £50 million coming into Edlington which is a lot for a place like this.

“I can’t vote Labour, I can’t do it. I can’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn for a start and I know that’s not all the issue – Jeremy Corbyn. I just can’t vote for him.”

Speaking after his walk down Bungalow Road, Mr Cleverly said: “People that have voted Labour their whole lives, people who have represented Labour, are saying they are going to be voting for Nick.

“They want to see Brexit done. They were made a promise and we’re delivering on that promise.

“Things are changing - we really want to see people voting Doncaster on the 12th.”Yorkshire Main Colliery, which once dominated the area employing 1,400 people, closed down in 1985 under former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher.

When asked if people were easy to forget what happened in the area under her spell as PM, Mr Cleverly said: “Labour have represented South Yorkshire and Doncaster for decades and decades and decades and they’ve made all kinds of promises about how they’ll make things better and the people we speak to they haven’t seen the change that they want.

“If we get a change of representation here, get a Conservative here who can talk to government, get stuff delivered for people here in Doncaster – that will make a real difference and I think that’s why people are voting for us this time around.”

The full list of candidates in Don Valley:

Mark Alcock - Liberal Democrats

Nick Fletcher - Conservative Party

Caroline Flint - Labour Party

Chris Holmes - Yorkshire Party

Kate Needham - Green Party

Paul Whitehurst - Brexit Party