Ballina-raised Labour candidate hoping to make history in UK general election
Claire Tighe, a Labour party candidate in the Spelthorne constituency in this week's UK General Election was raised in Ballina by parents Martin and Ann from Ballycastle
A native of Ballycastle in Co Mayo will contest the British General Election this week.
Claire Tighe is running for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the Spelthorne Constituency when the British public take to the polls this Thursday, July 4 for what is set to be one of the most intriguing and anticipated elections across the pond in some time.
Claire was born in Ealing but then raised in Ballina where she attended St Mary’s Secondary School. Her parents, her father Martin and her late mother Ann, are from Ballycastle and members of the Tighe family still live in Ballycastle.
Claire returned to London to work in politics after attending University College Dublin. She currently plays a key role in party leader Keir Starmer’s office as his official liaison with the party’s directly elected mayors including London’s Sadiq Khan.
Tighe was elected as a councillor for Labour in the Ealing by-election in west London in September 2021, scoring a huge win for the party, producing their best ever result in the Hobbayne ward and increasing their overall majority.
Spelthorne is traditionally a Conservative stronghold but Tighe is poised to upset the apple cart – she is presently neck and neck with the Tory candidate Lincoln Jopp at 31% each. If successful, she would be the first Labour MP elected in the Surrey constituency of Spelthorne since 1945, as well as the constituency’s first female MP.
The results of Spelthorne will be known early on Friday morning.
