Meltdown for Manchester Lib Dems

Article published: Friday, May 6th 2011

Manchester’s Liberal Democrats face devastation following last night’s local elections as the party lost all 11 incumbent council seats, including that of local party leader Simon Ashley.

In one night the party’s representation on Manchester City Council was slashed by a third, with the Labour Party capturing traditional Liberal heartlands including Withington and West and East Didsbury. 33 of the council’s 96 seats were up for election, each either won or held by Labour.

Labour gained 13 seats overall; 11 from the Lib Dems and two from other parties. Among the casualties were long-established Lib Dems including John Commons, Alison Firth and Abu Chowdhury, of Levenshulme, Withington and Rusholme wards respectively, and leader of the opposition on the council Simon Ashley of Gorton South.

Gorton North, Burnage, Chorlton and Chorlton Park also fell to the Labour party and the Lib Dems were pushed into fourth place or lower in 12 seats. Nevertheless at around 30 per cent turnout remained low overall across the city compared to previous years, and it remains to be seen whether the night should be considered a win for Labour, or simply a loss for the Lib Dems.

The extent of the landslide suggests a damning verdict from voters on the decision by the national party to enter into coalition government with the Conservatives. Lib Dem Councillor Mark Clayton, whose own seat in Didsbury West was not up for election, told MULE that when canvassing during the election campaign “those voters who did switch brought up national cuts and taxes.”

Successful Labour candidate Chris Paul, who won Withington from Alison Firth, echoed the view that the local impact of national cuts decided the election. “It’s not Firth’s fault, it’s national. We feel what happened to us in 2003 with the Iraq war is happening to the Lib Dems now,” he said.

Others were more bullish. Gorton South councillor Julie Reid, whose Labour colleague Aftab Ahmed successfully won a seat in neighbouring Levenshulme following a hard-fought and often bitter campaign, said “we chipped away for years but we smashed them.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many Labour Party members were in good cheer through the night. However Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd said the results were, for Labour, “a good night for the wrong reasons,” adding “people are frightened by what the government is doing. It’s not a voice of triumph.”

The election also saw the Green party come second in Moss Side and Hulme, where campaigners focused on local housing issues and came third place in Withington, where some local Labour activists believe the Greens have attracted the support of disaffected Lib Dem voters.

Across England the picture looks equally grim with the Lib Dems already having lost 200 seats, with half of England’s council seats still to be counted.

Richard Goulding

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More: Election, Manchester, News

Comments

1. We noticed our @hulmelabour councillors out canvassing, the other day. We were going to ask them for a hug but they walked right past us :-/

   Comment by Birley Fields Trees on May 6, 2011 at 8:31 am

2. “The election also saw the Green party come second in Moss Side and Hulme, where campaigners focused on local housing issues and came third place in Withington, where some local Labour activists believe the Greens have attracted the support of disaffected Lib Dem voters.”

   well, yes, but to be over 1000 votes behind the egregious Mary Murphy, in a ward where the Greens had a councillor and only lost by 50 votes a couple of years back is hardly cause for celebration. And the Moss Side result – well, the incumbent Labour candidate got 2738. The Green, who did indeed come second, got 295. Possibly a way to go before that gap is closed!

   Surely the Greens could (and should) be providing the intellectual/ideological, if not the electoral, opposition to Labour.

   Comment by Dwight Towers on May 7, 2011 at 12:47 am

3. You are right Dwight, the Greens should be pushing the council on their ‘business as usual’ policy which is unsustainable. And putting forward ‘Green Economics’ policies as well keeping pressure on the council to implement real environmental policies.

   Comment by Patrick Sudlow on May 7, 2011 at 7:42 pm

4. Where was the left? Ed Middleband has still to make a decisive break with the policies of New Labour. And yet there is no alternative (outside Scotland?) to the left of Labour. This time I voted Labour despite there being a Green candidate. Why? No campaign, no apparent organisation at all. I hadn’t even heard of the person’s name before I entered the holy of holies. (And I so wanted to give the Liberals a kicking.)

   Comment by Bill Raymond on May 7, 2011 at 10:24 pm

5. the Greens will have their day i reckon, now is a good time for them, people are fed up with the mainstream alternatives! Labour are now seen as self serving traitors esp in this city, torys are seen as too rich to care and libdems are well nothing to write home about and would gladly keep the gates of UK open to anyone who wants to wander in, Greens need to be seen to be actively lobbying the council on things like trees disappearing,energy efficiency, eco/energy efficient social pod housing,protecting greenbelt land,creation of green jobs solar panel installers! and focus on getting bigger and better. More passionate but knowledgable younger members may help them too who hail from Manchester btw…

   Comment by Joanne Harworth on May 13, 2011 at 10:31 am

6. what idiot would vote for a labour council where the chief exec Sir Howard Bernstein isnt even prepared to take a pay cut from his 232k salary as a gesture to his people and who gets to work in a black cab to work daily and who expects the taxpayer to foot the bill on his expenses? Hale barns to city centre aint cheap!! Some socialist eh? Will he pay my airfare to France i wonder??

   Comment by Joanne Harworth on May 13, 2011 at 10:37 am

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