Comment Labour case for defence in by-election frontline
LABOUR believes momentum in the Stoke-on-Trent Central byelection is moving its way but the battle to win next week’s poll “remains tough and tight”.
The party has run a campaign focusing on local issues, such as cuts to local children’s centres overseen by Stoke-on-Trent City Council – which is run by a coalition of independents, Conservatives and the city’s one UKIP councillor.
But it has also moved out of its “comfort zone” and fought main rivals UKIP on their own turf.
A party source said: “We have focused right from the start on Brexit, on immigration and on national security, and on national pride reflected in Stoke.”
Keir Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, launched the party’s by-election campaign to highlight Labour’s commitment to leaving the EU and introducing a “firm and fair” immigration policy to replace freedom of movement.
And Labour is set to launch a Brexit plan for Stoke, labelled the “Potteries Plan”, making it clear that it is looking forward to a future outside the EU.
The party also summoned former Labour Defence Secretary and former head of NATO George Robertson to campaign in the city, to emphasis the party’s commitment to defence.
Labour sources say: “We have been standing up and taking on the argument in areas UKIP might otherwise have thought was theirs.”
They admitted: “There were a significant minority of traditional Labour voters who had lost confidence in Labour... there’s been a remarkable turning of the tide but it still remains tough and tight.”
Labour has been through one crisis after another since losing the 2015 general election and could face another next week, when by-elections take place in Stoke-onTrent, Staffordshire, and Copeland, Cumbria, on Thursday, February 23.
The party won both seats in the 2015 general election and although Copeland is fairly marginal, with Labour defending a majority of just 2,564, it shouldn’t be in danger of losing either of them.
Opposition parties don’t lose seats in mid-term by-elections. That’s something parties do when they’re in government.
But Labour’s position is so weak that devastating by-election losses appear possible. The most recent YouGov poll found just 24 per cent of voters said they would back Labour if a general election was held tomorrow, compared to 40 per cent who would vote Conservative.
Tory leader and Prime Minister Theresa May has visited Copeland to back her candidate, in a sign that Conservatives think they could win an upset victory. It would be the first time the party in government has taken a seat from the official opposition in a by-election since 1982.
In the West Midlands city of Stokeon-Trent, Labour candidate Gareth Snell’s main challenger is UKIP candidate Paul Nuttall.
UKIP came second in the seat in 2015, although the Tories were a very close third. And despite reports that Conservatives have decided not to campaign in Stoke, the Tories have been running a ground operation in support of their candidate Jack Brereton, a former councillor.
Nonetheless, Labour sees UKIP as the main threat and is buoyed by the way that Mr Nuttall’s campaign has imploded.
First, it emerged that his nomination papers declared he was living in an end-of-terrace house near the city centre which he hadn’t actually moved in to when they were filed, although a UKIP spokesman was quoted at the time as saying he was in the process of moving in.
Then he admitted claims on his official website that he lost “close personal friends” in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster were not true.
Mr Nuttall’s decision to wear a tweed coat and flat cap on the
We have been standing up and taking on the argument in areas UKIP might otherwise have thought was theirs
campaign trail has also caused bemusement. A Labour source said: “One moment he’s the friend of the working class, the next he’s parading around Stoke looking like a country squire.”
The fact that Labour is the opposition group on the local council has also helped. The authority is proposing to cut spending on children’s centres by £1 million, resulting in 61 jobs cuts.
And there was considerable local opposition to plans to bring in private firms to run Staffordshire’s NHS cancer services. Labour has campaigned heavily on both these issues.
Labour had 500 volunteers campaigning in the city last weekend, and says it expects to have higher numbers this weekend.
But party figures insist they are not making predictions about the result.
“It’s now down to the last seven days,” one said.
Labour source