Liberal Democrats in Heywood and Middleton have selected local campaigner Anthony Smith to be the party’s candidate in the by-election on 9 October, brought about by the death of the incumbent Labour MP Jim Dobbin.
Rochdale Online reports:
Mr Smith has lived in Heywood and Middleton for most of his life.
The father of four and local businessman has pledged a focus on building a stronger economy in the area, getting better jobs and training opportunities for young people. He is launching a campaign to turn the derelict Castleton Carnegie library into a centre for small businesses.
He will also focus on crime in the area following the closure of Heywood Police station.
Mr Smith said: “I am privileged to have been selected for my home town and am committed to building a stronger economy and a fairer society right here in Heywood and Middleton.”
“The Liberal Democrats are the only party holding Labour to account in Heywood and Middleton and I will carry on the proud tradition of people like Cllr Peter Rush in standing up for my neighbours and friends in the local area.”
“Things have not got better fast enough in Heywood and Middleton; it is time for a different voice to Labour to be heard.”
Mr Smith has welcomed the Liberal Democrat focus on creating a fairer society, particularly in the field of education where the local school governor has seen the impact of the Liberal Democrats in government.
He said: “Growing up I left school at 16,worked on a shop floor, faced redundancy, reskilled and ran my own business. I know how hard individuals in our area have to work to support their families. This is why I am a proud Liberal Democrat, they make looking after family that little bit easier, providing free school meals for under fives and giving tax cuts to the people who earn the least instead of those that have higher incomes and can take more of the load.”
There is a full schedule of campaigning activity taking place in the constituency, including canvassing with Presidential hopeful Liz Lynne this weekend – those available to help can email Richard Marbrow on [email protected] or call 01706 646370.
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9 Comments
Sounds like an excellent candidate – time for all our MPs and Peers and members to pile in and give him the support he needs not leave him to a lost deposit. We must stop the rot of pretending our vote will inevitably be squeezed.
Labour are currently going hard for tactical Votes, emphasising the threat of a UKIP win. Our vote will be squeezed as our supporters back Labour to stop UKIP. This would be a poor prospect for us anyway because we are in Government. Governing Parties dont make gains in Byelections.
The fact is that Labour have to cast themselves as the underdog, in a “Safe” seat, 7 months before A general Election.
Given the combined UKIP/BNP vote was almost 10% in 2010, and the likelihood of a UKIP win in Clacton, the hide our heads under the duvet approach will lead to disaster. Do we really want to hand UKIP two by-election wins months before a general election ? The latest polls seem to have us at 7% in wales (down from 20% in 2010) 5-6% in Scotland, 8% in the UK. We are writing our own narrative of irrelevance and oblivion.
Votes get squeezed when people are persuaded to vote for second best. When people strongly agree with what you are campaigning for, they vote for you. The governing parties don’t win by-lections is not a law of physics, it didn’t apply in the UK and does apply in other countries – it is a self fulfilling prophesy.
@Paul Barker – nobody is expecting us to win the Heywood by-election. But the fact is that we got a very creditable 22.7% there in 2010 and it would be a pretty poor show if the national party does not offer sufficient help to our candidate to achieve a respectable result.
UKIP tonight claiming 2 x Conservative MP defections to UKIP in the next few days!!! What with alleged Labour anxieties about UKIP at Heywood and Royton it might be an interesting week or two. As for us well you can hope we might get the magic 5% but perhaps not, we have practically completely collapsed as a party around that area, almost as bad as Scotland..
I hope Anthony does not read the Independent this morning – the ComRes poll showing the responses of 2000 to these questions:
Q: Please select which of the following words or phrases apply to each party leader.
Q: Which party do you trust most to…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-party-conference-nigel-farage-weirder-than-ed-miliband-poll-reveals-9755345.html
Do not make comfortable reading for any member of the Party engaged in any election in the near future unless there is a very popular incumbent LD or there is a very powerful local issue to base a campaign upon.
I am afraid that LD is going to continue to equate to ‘Lost Deposit’ in many parts of the country unless there is a change in strategy, change in leader or both.
In Anthony Smith my local Party has picked an excellant, hard working and more importantly LOCAL candidate. Contrast this with Labour whose candidate comes from Rossendale, UKIP from Cheshire (and incidently fought the Sale East by election) and the Conservatives who hails from Bury.
We may not be in a position to realistically win this seat but it does give us a platform to build towards next years local elections, to raise our profile locally and recruit new members.
Thanks must go to John Leech MP, Chris Davies and Liz Lynne for helping on the knocker….it would be nice to see others join the fight . Please come and join the team if only for an hour….Call or email Richard Marbrow on [email protected] or call 01706 646370.
Hope to see you on the streets of Heywood & Middleton before 9th October.
@ John Heyworth
I don’t wish to sound overly pessimistic – and I do believe having a local candidate is an advantage – but having made this point what do you actually say on the doorstep to encourage a voter to support the Party?
Some rightly challenging comments here, much as for Clacton, but it seems clear to me that not contesting would be taken by the national media and most people as evidence that we were slinking obediently into oblivion. So we have to fight and get over a clear message of what we stand for – which is not, I believe, halfway between whatever the current extremes are.