PFI revelation fails to tip balance to Lib Dems in North East battleground seat
Labour’s Roberta Blackman-Woods retained City of Durham after beginning the campaign lauding County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust’s “state of the art £91m hospital”.
The Lib Dem challengers, who lost by 3,000 votes, responded by saying two-thirds of the costs were under a private finance initiative and as such would cost taxpayers more than half a billion by the time it was paid off.
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Readers' comments (1)
Bob Hudson | 8-May-2010 9:28 am
I can assure you that the PFI issue barely figured in this election (my own constituency). The LD candidate waged an aggressively negative and personal campaign that did not go down well, and this was reflected in the failure to achieve any real swing in this prime LD target seat. I would say the key issue was around protecting the public sector in an area heavily dependent upon government contracts and support.
Bob Hudson
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