Labour is too weak to win and too strong to die The Hartlepool by-election shows Labour is rudderless in an era in which cultural values, not class, shape voting patterns. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Keir Starmer visits a building development project on the banks of the River Wear on 1 May 2021 in Durham. Commander John Kerans was an assistant naval attaché in Nanking, China in 1949 who took control of HMS Amethyst when the ship came under fire on the Yangtze river during the latter stages of the Chinese Civil War. After being detained for ten weeks, Commander Kerans led a night-time flight. His escapade became the subject of a film,
THE last time a Conservative won in Hartlepool was 1959, and perhaps he secured his slender 182 vote victory through a little skulduggery on the cinema screen. He was Lieutenant-Commander John Kerans, who had no connection with the town that is currently the scene of one of the most important by-elections in the country for decades. But he was the “hero of the Amethyst”, perhaps Britain’s last great boy’s own naval hero, with his daring exploits being made into a popular action adventure movie. However, early in his career, the Irishman was regarded by his superiors as too much of a brash maverick to really do a disciplined job for the Royal Navy and so, in the late 1940s, he was appointed assistant naval attaché in Nanking, in China, on the Yangtze river.
From a war hero to the Prince of darkness : A timeline of Hartlepool MPs
Residents will soon have to choose who they want to represent them again
Updated
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Hartlepool s residents will be heading to the ballot-box in 2021, following the resignation of their MP with immediate effect.