LETTER : No mistake in my near-win

From Ms Melanie Johnson

Sir: As one of the women candidates featured in your article on New Labour, I was bemused to read that I "nearly got elected by mistake" as Euro MP for Cambridgeshire last year ("Women who are the face of New Labour", 25 May).

Perhaps the record could be put straight. We fought a campaign in Cambridgeshire and achieved the 11th-highest swing to Labour since the 1989 elections out of the 84 Euro seats. I would have been delighted to have won. A Labour victory would also have delighted John Major's next-door neighbour whose gate was plastered with my posters. If there was a mistake, it was in not getting the remaining 4,000 votes needed for victory.

I think you will also find that a swing of 7 per cent mentioned in your article to elect Labour in Welwyn Hatfield will, following boundary changes, fall under the 6 per cent, as with the other seats.

Yours faithfully,

MELANIE JOHNSON

Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Welwyn Hatfield Constituency Labour Party

Welwyn Garden City

Hertfordshire

25 May