The Lancashire Telegraph has the story:
Rochdale Council’s deputy leader, Dale Mulgrew, has withdrawn from the race to become MP for Rossendale and Darwen a week after declaring Rochdale was his first priority.
The son of comedian Jimmy Cricket drew widespread criticism from both Labour and Tory politicians after his comments following his promotion within Rochdale Council.
Speaking after his resignation, Mr Mulgrew said: “This is a decision I have not taken lightly, but clearly my priority from now on has to be on Rochdale.
“There are a lot of challenges, and what remains upmost in my thinking is continuing to represent the people of Rochdale.”
Full story here.
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4 Comments
Anyone got any figures on how many PPCs have quit during this Parliament? It seems to me that we’ve suffered quite a high rate of attrition with PPCs stepping down for all sorts of reasons.
Bernard, I think part of this is down to the ‘election that never was’ in 2007. Many PPCs were chosen for that and over 2 years there’s bound to be lots of changes in circumstances whether personal, work-related or political.
The Lib Dems are never going to be handed PR on a plate, regardless what absurd effects FPTP yields. It is only going to be extracted via a hung parliament and given that is it so bad if the Rossendale campaign is shambolic? Its priority should be purely to prevent Labour winning the seat, blocking another Labour Commons majority. However, the aim in Bolton NE should be to prevent the Tories winning in order to stop a Commons majority for them.
The priorities for Liberal Democrats in Rochdale are to (1) hold Rochdale and (2) win Oldham East and Saddleworth. Rossendale isn’t even a “developmental” seat. Councillor Mulgrew has made the right decision.