Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for nine years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
If the text message I have just received is true... Labour have just had a stunning result in a by-election in Sandwell.
The by-election was caused by the sad, early death of Lib Dem Martyn Smith, a man who had almost legendary status in West Midlands Liberal/Lib Dem politics. Martyn was the first Liberal to be elected to Sandwell Council in 1980. His wife Sadie followed him on to the Council a couple of years later. In Newton Ward, Martyn's Ward, the Lib Dems held all three seats with a comfortable majority.
Well, not any more they don't... because Labour are reported to have turned it around tonight and taken the seat. So... congratulations to Dave Hosell, and welcome to the Labour benches!
Paul Sandars said:
January 25, 2008 1:14 AM | permalink
I was honoured to be a small part of a magnificent polling day team; and with an earlyish start on Friday, went to bed confident that Dave had indeed won.
Unsurprisingly, I can't sleep, and so I've been Googling to find the news..you are the first website to provide just that.
It's an historic success and a well-deserved victory for Dave- even the respected Stirrer page got his information wrong and predicted a Liberal Party hold. Dave will bring new hope to the people of Newton- and help Labour continue defending freedom and democracy for the hard working people of Sandwell.
Ben... it feels great, and that's two gains in the last two months. It's the Tories you should be asking. Do you know when the Tories last gained a seat in a parliamentary by-election? Look it up and let me know!
Chris, we won by 39 votes. In May the Lib Dems won by 252 votes. The significance was much greater though. It was effectively a safe Lib Dem seat. The late Martyn Smith had held the seat for nearly 30 years and the Lib Dems could have expected a sympathy vote.
On the ground we just out-campaigned them.
bob tidmarsh said:
January 28, 2008 10:13 AM | permalink
There was a blogger who got the result right, try midtids@blogspot.com post bonus and banana skins 3rd Jan and scroll down to post update on 24th.
Interesting to see the leader of Lib Dems comments after the count 'the electorate sometimes get complacent'.
Tim Swift said:
January 28, 2008 3:05 PM | permalink
Bob, I wondered which ward it was and was quite stunned to discover it was this one. I knew Martyn slightly when I was a member of the Libs during the 1980s and early 1990s and on personal level and very sad about this death. Martyn was an example of grass-roots liberals from those times who seem a very long way distance from the suited populists that now dominate their party politics. Congratulations to Sandwell Labour on a fantastic election result!
January 25, 2008 1:14 AM | permalink
I was honoured to be a small part of a magnificent polling day team; and with an earlyish start on Friday, went to bed confident that Dave had indeed won.
Unsurprisingly, I can't sleep, and so I've been Googling to find the news..you are the first website to provide just that.
It's an historic success and a well-deserved victory for Dave- even the respected Stirrer page got his information wrong and predicted a Liberal Party hold. Dave will bring new hope to the people of Newton- and help Labour continue defending freedom and democracy for the hard working people of Sandwell.