Mark Hendrick has been re-elected as MP for Preston. Here’s what he had to say

We spoke to Sir Mark Hendrick shortly after he was re-elected as MP of Preston with a majority of 12,146 votes.

Preston has once again bucked the national trend. Why is this?

We’ve got dedicated local councillors, party activists embedded in the community, and I’ve been living here now for 25 years.

Prior to being the MP I was a representative in the European Parliament. I am pretty acquainted with and understand Preston people, and I think that counts for something. The council has been a good council and over the years I think we have done a good job.

I think Preston people know what they want and are loyal to the Labour Party, but that doesn’t get away from the fact we have a Conservative Government and overall things are getting worse rather than getting better.

What does the future hold now in light of the overall election results?

Things are going to get worse before they get better. The economic conditions if we leave the EU at the end of January will get worse, there will be disinvestment in industry that will mean firms will start to relocate to mainland Europe.

And while this has cleared the uncertainty about whether we leave the EU, what it has done has set conditions that make it very unfavourable in terms of jobs and business.

The fact that our laws will start to diverge from the EU. Things like workers rights, consumer standards will get worse, there’s the cost cutting exercises – poverty more of the like that we’ve seen and built up over the last nine years.

They now have the majority to go out with Boris’s Brexit deal at the end of January if the exit polls are to be believed.

What does this mean for Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party?

Everything has got to be looked at. It’s his second election defeat. We need to examine where we are in policy terms, in our pitch and campaigning techniques, and we need to offer the British public something to make the Labour Party more acceptable.