'Enjoyed successes in areas where we do not always win'

MP for Ellesmere Port

SATISFYING results for my Party over the weekend which undoubtedly go a long way to making all the efforts in the run-up to elections very much worthwhile. Of course these elections were not a general election but it is impossible not to look at them with that in mind, and they make worrying reading for Rishi Sunak.

There were council elections across many parts of the country but locally there was only one by-election in the Wolverham and Stanney Grange area of Ellesmere Port.

It followed the retirement on health grounds of my Labour colleague Michael Edwardson and we wish Michael all the very best for the future.

His successor as Labour candidate, John Stockton, worked very hard to introduce himself to Wolverham ward voters and he was handsomely rewarded with a majority of more than 500 votes. There were six candidates and John emerged streets ahead of his rivals.

The result in Wolverham was announced after a count at Ellesmere Port Sports Village on Friday afternoon. By then we were all buoyed up following the fantastic news that Labour candidate Chris Webb had regained the Parliamentary seat of Blackpool South with a massive swing from the Conservatives, the third biggest since the second world war. This follows a number of huge by election defeats for the Tories and does not augur well for them when the General Election was finally called despite Rishi Sunak’s claims that the results last week mean we are heading into hung Parliament territory. With national opinion polls showing Labour leads of around 20% I suspect that if he were offered a hung Parliament now he would bite your hand off.

Closer to home, the Labour candidate Dan Price came ahead of the sitting Conservative Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner John Dwyer. I wish Dan all the best in his new role.

Labour enjoyed successes in areas where we do not always win. As well as regaining control in so-called Red Wall areas, there were also big gains in what have traditionally been true Blue territories.London returned Sadiq Khan as Labour Mayor for a third time which was an accomplishment never managed before. So was there anything else to achieve?

Indeed there was. In a cliffhanger results count in the West Midlands, it emerged that Labour candidate Richard Parker was within a stone’s throw of defeating the high profile Conservative incumbent Andy Street and, following a recount in Coventry, that is exactly what he did. The fact that Andy Street ran him so close in what was generally a poor night for the Conservatives showed that the increasing power and profile of the elected Mayors is something that the public are warming to.