Colum Eastwood victory speech
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00:00Can I first of all thank all of the staff who've been involved in this election. I know how long they've been working, many of them from yesterday morning at 7 o'clock.
00:12It doesn't go unnoticed. I also want to pay tribute to all the other candidates. It was a good, clean fight. I came honest very quickly.
00:23Politics is very difficult. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't win. I've been on both sides of that argument.
00:30But the most important thing is that we have a democratic process that people can take part in without fear of intimidation and violence.
00:37And I take my hat off to everybody who's put their name on a bottle of paper in this election.
00:42I want to thank my long-time friend, mentor and election agent, John Tierney. I want to thank my campaign manager, Brian Tierney.
00:57All of my staff and all the volunteers who've given an enormous amount of effort over the past six weeks.
01:09We had a six-month plan for this election which ended up becoming a six-week plan.
01:14It meant a serious effort by people who not only gave, other than a commitment to a cause and a commitment to their city.
01:22I'm very grateful for every last one of them.
01:25I'm very grateful mostly to the people of Derry who have once again said that they want their voice to be heard in Westminster.
01:34I will gladly continue to be your voice. I will stand up for the people of our city, of our constituency. We won't be quiet.
01:44I have to say I'm delighted to see the back of the Tory government. Fourteen years of destroying our public services. Fourteen years of destroying the economy.
01:54Destroying family finances is now gone. We're delighted that it's happened.
02:00But we also know that we're going to have to be there to hold the Labour government's feet to the fire.
02:05They made some promises to this place. They made a promise to scrap the Legacy Act. That needs to happen immediately.
02:12They made a promise to recognise the spirit of policy. That needs to happen.
02:21And we need to see our public bodies and public finances put back into decent shape.
02:26Far too many of our people are languishing on a hell within us. That needs to end.
02:32On that, I just want to say let's get to work. Thank you.
02:42Thank you.