Despite securing more than 30% of the vote in the Leicester West constituency in this month’s general election in the United Kingdom, Conservative Jack Hickey, who has ties to Fermoy through his grandfather, was unable to win a seat for his party as Labour comfortably held with 60.8% of the vote.
The 24-year-old teacher received 31.4% of the electorate vote with 11,763 votes, someway off the 22,823 votes won by Labour’s Liz Kendall.
Jack is the grandson of the late Jack Hickey, and son of Sean Hickey who is the fourth of five children born to Jack and Mary Hickey. Jack (Snr) was one of six brothers who lived in John Redmond Street in Fermoy, along with Moss, Larry, Tim, Jack, Oliver and Tom, all who are now deceased. Jack’s grandfather moved to Leicester from Fermoy in 1956.
A total collapse of the UKIP vote (down from 17.2% in 2015 to 3.7% in 2017) and further decreases in support for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party meant the Leicester West constituency was a two-horse race, with the Conservatives and Labour taking more than 92% of the vote between them.
It was the Conservatives best result in the Labour stronghold since 1987, where they were just over 1,000 votes behind Labour.
