New Labour MP for Portsmouth South says city '˜voted for hope'

New Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan celebrates with Labour supporters at Portsmouth Guildhall

Picture: Habibur Rahman — New Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan celebrates with Labour supporters at Portsmouth Guildhall Picture: Habibur Rahman

Stephen Morgan’s meteoric rise as a politician continued in the early hours of Friday morning after he ousted Conservative candidate Flick Drummond from the highly-contested seat.

Mr Morgan has gone from a Labour party member to a city councillor to then member of parliament in the space of two years.

He said: ‘This is a vote for hope in Portsmouth and an historic vote.

‘I am looking forward to serving every single community in the city, for the many, not just the few.

‘This shows that you can never tell someone from Fratton that you cannot do something.

‘It has been a dream to be a candidate in this city and a privilege to meet so many people with a campaign faced on hope.

‘Tomorrow, I was planning to join the gym. That can wait!’

He added that the city had ‘stood up for Portsmouth’s schools, for pensioners struggling to make ends meet and for our city.’

Addressing his priorities in the new role, Mr Morgan said targeted securing funding for the city’s schools and the Queen Alexandra Hospital.

He said: ‘It is really important that we get a better deal for our schools. The Tories were planning cuts to local services and I think it is important that the schools get the investment that they need.

‘Also, crucially, I want to address our NHS. The Queen Alexandra Hospital has been struggling and I will look to see it gets the support it desperately needs.’

Mrs Drummond, who had previously expressed her dissatisfaction with the prime minister’s call for a general election, wished the new MP well.

She said: ‘Obviously, I am very disappointed. I was two years into my term and there was a lot of things that I wanted to do. Unfortunately, our manifesto could not promise what others did. But I guess that is democracy. I wish Stephen well. It truly is a great job.’

The seat has always had either a Liberal or Conservative sitting MP since it was first created back in 1918.

Mr Morgan managed to boost the vote by more than 10,000 from 2015 in order to claim the highly-contested seat.