Corus closure may mean end of an era for Vera Baird

May 9 2010 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

THE anguished face of Vera Baird when the result for Redcar came through showed that all her worst fears had come true.

A popular MP with a healthy majority from the last general election, she became the victim of the biggest swing of support from one party to another nationwide following the ballot on Thursday.

The 21.8% shift from Labour to the Liberal Democrats saw her 12,000 majority in 2005 evaporate and turn into 5,000 to her opponent Ian Swales.

The word on her potential defeat had been on the street for a while - and the word was “Corus”.

“Everywhere I went it was Corus, Corus, Corus,” said Ms Baird.

The Corus steelworks was mothballed earlier this year costing around 1,600 jobs. Prime Minister Gordon Brown handed over £60m to help the community recover from its closure but locals were furious the cash wasn’t used to keep it open.

Ms Baird said: “It wasn’t just the economic impact. It was symbolic.

“Teesside was born on the steel industry, generation after generation have worked in it, it’s their heritage and most of those have worked in it vote Labour. I think people were bitter and they felt betrayed.

“When I was out knocking on doors one in every three or four people were talking about Corus and how they felt the community had been stabbed in the back. I would set out how it happened, what the Labour party, Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson had done and a sizeable amount, perhaps 50% of them, decided then they hadn’t been betrayed. But that was just the people I managed to talk to.

“There was a feeling we just didn’t do enough and it’s something I acknowledge.”