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Labour Representation Committee
We will be posting regular blogs on this page. Please feel free to comment.
02 May 2008
. . . and the carnage continues
10:30 - Labour has now breached 150 council seats lost (net) with still more than a third of seats to declare. Losses in Wales, where there have been all-out elections, are looking just as bad as those in England.
A new rush of results is expected between 11:30-12:30pm.
11:00 - A bit of analysis, since we're in a results lull: Labour has been hit hardest in its supposed heartlands, showing that we have alienated our core vote. Turnout at 35% is roughly the same as in recent years - and so it is likely that Labour support has, in even higher numbers this time, stayed at home.
Meanwhile Tory voters, smelling blood, have been motivated to come out. We've had several reports emailed in to the LRC of Tory canvassers out in force and more motivated than in recent years. Labour has a fight on its hands, but with average constituency membership now under 300 (and in dozens of areas down to two figures) have we got the activists on the ground anymore to turn it around?
13:00 - Labour has now lost more than 200 councillors, and has lost control of Reading and Wolverhampton councils in the last hour.
Reports are that turnout in London has hit 45%. The interesting thing will be how that breaks down between inner and outer London.
14:00 - Labour has now lost more than 250 council seats. The loss of Reading (noted above) means that Labour has no councils in the whole of the South East region.
Labour has also lost Caerphilly, and Sheffield has gone from NOC to the Lib Dems.
15:30 - The exception of the night: Labour takes Slough, gaining 4 seats. Slough replaces Reading as Labour's only council in the South East region.
However, Labour was nearly pushed into third in Northumberland, demonstrating Labour's collapse in its heartlands; and despite losing eight seats, Labour has hung on to Wakefield by a whisker.
The London result looks to be coming later than expected due to the higher turnout.
17:00 - With only a couple of council results left to declare, Labour has now lost more than 300 council seats.
20:00 - In the downtime before the London results start coming in, let's look at how MPs have responded to the results. Derek Wyatt MP, loyalist MP for Sittingborne and Sheppey, said: "Look at the situation with fuel prices, the non-doms and the 10p tax band. Gordon has committed spectacular own-goals and the public is punishing him for it". John McDonnell said "Without a radical change of direction, we are witnessing a Labour Government slipping away". Ian Gibson has urged the Prime Minister to offer railway renationalisation, union rights for agency workers and a more generous minimum wage to restore the confidence of traditional Labour voters. Tamworth Labour MP Brian Jenkins said: "I understand people want to give the Government a kicking. But it is unfortunate this reflects on a lot of good people who stood [in Tamworth]. It is all about national issues and had they voted on who they want to run the town, the result would have been different". Blairite Birmingham MP Sion Simon said: "As a Government we have to listen to ordinary working class voters in Labour heartlands like Erdington more clearly if we want to be successful in the future". Linda Gilroy said: "People expect us to be fair in a consistent way and we haven't been"
posted by Andrew at
7 Comments:
said...
The Tories certainly weren't out in force in Romford (one of their strongholds). Maybe they were just complacent?
In contrast my Labour comrades and I were in a frenzy of activity in our target ward of Romford Town.
02 May 2008 12:18
Duncan Hall said...
Lost all five wards we contested in Craven. Having said that, it wasn't out-and-out carnage: not that far from what was expected.
The scary thing was the turnout in the ward I contested (the, on paper, most promising ward for Labour). 27% - compared with turnouts of 60%+ in some of the rural wards. Our voters stayed at home. And we have to put together a programme that will get them out - and engage people with that programme.
We've simply got to come out fighting. The post-mortem should be brief (but thoroughly honest) and the solution is clear: a proper vision of what the government is going to do, and a clear programme of what we'll do and when. We need a handful of clear policy areas where we can get a huge consensus in the party and unions and force the leadership to accept our programme.
02 May 2008 13:32
Duncan Hall said...
300? Dear God. Everyone seems to be saying the 'comedy bigot' has got the mayor job as well. Bloody hell.
02 May 2008 17:13
Duncan Hall said...
Blimey, make that nearly 400...
02 May 2008 17:40
said...
400 gross, 330 ish net on my calculations.
02 May 2008 17:52
marshajane said...
good posts Andrew ive also been rating over on Union Futures.
If anyone else says to me dont Mourn Organise I think i'll scream.
02 May 2008 17:58
Duncan Hall said...
One problem we've got is that the press last year managed to convince some people (and I think some of our people - left and right - contributed to this too) that Gordon is somehow a figure of the left. So you get people making absurd comments such as this (from the BBC comments on the mayor election):
"Please save us from the corrupt communism of Ken and Gordon! Enough is enough. Tony was the socially acceptable face of moderate socialism - now the reality of the hard left is hitting home, and Londoners don't like it!"
These sorts of comments will be used by some to push for further right-ward drift (if that's possible), more 'bold', 'radical' policies of the RIGHT.
A lot of people didn't vote Labour yesterday because they're to the left of the government. But quite a lot of those people don't really realise that they are to the left of the government, because they think about things issue-by-issue rather than in terms of left and right.
02 May 2008 20:01
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