Don’t be put off by the train station sounding Sefton Central – the news that Claire Curtis-Thomas, once dubbed the UK’s most expensive MP, is standing down should signal a re-evaluation of the Liberal Democrats chances in this new seat.
No-one is surprised by Ms Curtis-Thomas’s decision as she has gone from being the country’s most expensive MP to one of the most inactive. I have been the prospective Parliamentary candidate for two years, and in that time there has only ever been reactive responses from the Labour camp. In terms of literature, the only thing that has hit the streets is material paid for by the taxpayer as part of the Parliamentary Communication Allowance.
In fact she has been very much like Anthony Gormley’s Iron Men which reside on Crosby beach – in that she has been doing nothing, saying nothing and is unable to stem the incoming tide of rejection at the ballot box.
The reality is that there are no Labour councillors in the new constituency and Claire knows they cannot win. Make no mistake, despite what the psephologists are predicting, the new seat is no shoe-in for the Tories either. Let’s look at the facts. We are the biggest party on Sefton Council where the Tories vote with Labour, and vice versa, which almost caused government inspectors to be drafted in last May.
We have 10 councillors in the new constituency and won a seat from the Tories in May 2008 in Manor ward where the Tory candidate is a councillor. There is no enthusiasm on the doorstep for the Tories who simply say as they did in Manor – that a vote for us let’s Labour in. Clearly at the general election that will not be the case.
Like many similar seats across the country, the choice is between a Conservative party which has proved by its recent announcements that it hasn’t changed and is only concerned with those who are better off in society. I am confident that when it comes to making that choice the people of Sefton Central will realise that it is only the Liberal Democrats who offer real change for everyone.
* Richard Clein is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Sefton Central.
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12 Comments
It would be great if we could make headway in Liverpool!
Sefton Central is essentially the same seat as Crosby, famously won by Shirley Williams. It’s also next door to the Lib Dem held seat of Southport.
Well done Richard. This is exactly the kind of seat that would fall to us, especially if weren’t trying to be further to the right of the Tories on the major issues. It is quite something when to our left we find John Redwood who wrote on the 21st September:
>Savage cuts are not a good idea.
Alas, this is Tory target 127 and thus the sort of seat that will give them a small Commons majority and put George Osborne in charge of the nation’s cash. Who is best to prevent this- the LDs at 18% locally or Labour at 46%? Best to vote tactically for Labour here and shore up neigbouring Southport against the Tories.
Hugh, I believe you underestimate the ability as a campaigner that Richard brings to this seat and the scale of the disenhantment with Labour. Give those disenchanted former Labour voters something to rally to and let’s reverse those figures.
Given how unpopular the Labour party is, that’s easy: the Lib Dems.
If their number one priority was preventing a Tory government, the best thing Labour could do is to step down in all but their hundred safest seats in favour of the Liberal Democrats.
vote Labour. Never in a month of Sundays. As a party some of us have spent so long fighting the Tories they see themselves as anti-Tory and pro-Labour. My view is we fight both. We are fighting, and beating, labour up and down the country and do not want to hand them a free pass to government like Charlie Kennedy did in 97 (although they ended up not needing him).
I hear the Tory campaign is pretty faltering here and it is an outside chance.
“do not want to hand them a free pass to government like Charlie Kennedy did in 97”
Paddy not Charles.
Rather sad to see what looks like the end of Claire C-T’s political career. Cannot comment on her recent performance, but I worked alongside her when she was a Labour councillor in Crewe in the 1990s.
She was highly-qualified, educated, articulate – and detested by most of her Labour colleagues.
When she won her seat (with one of the highest swings of 1997) she was – it is said – one of the new intake against whom there were some black marks in the little black book of a certain Labour spin doctor.
When this was stated in one of the Sunday papers, one of her former ‘colleagues’ in the local Labour Group approached the local media virtually pleading for them to publicise the fact !!
Such are the ways of the comrades in Socialism ….
“We are the biggest party on Sefton Council where the Tories vote with Labour, and vice versa, which almost caused government inspectors to be drafted in last May.”
Eh? Government inspectors “almost” brought in because of political cooperation between parties? I’d be interested to hear an explanation of that!
Sefton Central looks as if it could be the St Albans of the North. Both are prosperous outer suburban areas with a strong Lib Dem presence where Labour scored surprise victories in 1997. In 2005, the Lib Dem vote in St Albans partially recovered (almost doubled, in fact), costing Labour the seat. This was against a background of Labour weakness and Lib Dem strength at local government level. The Lib Dems are now seen as the clear challengers in St Albans, despite still coming third. Yes, Sefton Central is one to watch. Having said that, the priority still has to be the re-election of John Pugh next door.
LOL