The race to declare election results is heating up around the North East
The famous North East contest to see who might declare the first result of the General Election would appear to be hotting up once again – with even more contenders seemingly in the mix on July 4.
Our region’s ballot counters have long been known as the quickest in the country, with Sunderland making the first declaration at every election from 1992 to 2015 before rivals in Newcastle took the accolade on the last two occasions.
The expectation this year had been that Newcastle was very much out of the picture, with the Northumberland seat of Blyth and Ashington having been identified as a potential frontrunner.
But the situation changed on Thursday evening when Newcastle City Council heavily revised the anticipated declaration times it had been briefing on in recent weeks, while Tynemouth could be another seat worth keeping a close eye on.
While Newcastle’s first declaration times in 2017 and 2019 came in within 90 minutes of polls closing, at 11.01pm and 11.27pm respectively, officials initially said they did not expect to declare the winner of the Newcastle Central and West seat until around 1.15am on Friday, July 5.
However, civic centre bosses have reversed that cautious stance now, telling the media that a first result could now be expected around midnight and all three of the city’s seats complete by 1am.
The city council insists, as most always tend to in public, that it is not trying to declare first and that accuracy is the priority.
Civic centre sources pointed to a high postal vote return so far, meaning that counting can be done more quickly on the night while waiting for other ballot boxes to arrive, as one factor behind the revised estimate – but warned that there is still much uncertainty.
In Sunderland, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that the Houghton and Sunderland South constituency could be called around 11.30pm – which is the same estimate being given for the Blyth and Ashington seat.
The election team in Northumberland were tipped as the quickest in 2019, but the need for a recount as Conservative Ian Levy claimed a shock victory in Blyth Valley delayed their announcement on that December night.
It is also known that top election administrator Bill Crawford, the man who led Sunderland’s rapid counts for years and subsequently masterminded Newcastle’s success, will be on hand in Blyth on July 4.
There may be more names in contention, however.
Sources have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Tynemouth is another constituency where a result could come in before midnight.
North Tyneside’s counters were the first in the region to finalise their results in the recent mayoral and PCC elections and, due to boundary changes, have only one relatively compact constituency from which they will receive ballots next week.
Even Gateshead Central and Whickham has been mentioned as an outside possibility.
While Gateshead Council has offered an official estimate of 2am for that seat, a result is thought to be likely well before then.
Similar to the situation with Tynemouth, Gateshead’s counting team has just one fairly compact constituency to deal with this year.
According to the PA news agency, the result in the Essex seat of Basildon and Billericay and the Hertfordshire constituency of Broxbourne are expected to be declared at 12.15am.
Basildon and Billericay is where Tory party chair and former North West Durham MP Richard Holden is standing.