Election 08

LABOUR TOPPLED IN WOLVERHAMPTON

02-05-2008

Voters in Wolverhampton delivered a massive snub to Gordon Brown by voting out the city’s Labour administration. Four cabinet members and the Mayor all lost their seats.

It was a great night for the Conservatives under their recently elected leader Neville Patten who made eight gains.

They are now likely to form a Birmingham-style Progressive Partnership with the Liberal Democrats – as exclusively forecast forecast weeks ago on The Stirrer (see link here).

The Conservatives now have 27 seats, the Lib Dems 5, and Labour 28.

Labour losers included the Mayor Trudi Bowen (Bilston North) and Cabinet members Geoff Foster (Fallings Park), Milkinder Jaspal (Heath Town) Christine Irvine (Oxley) and Paula Bookfield (Bushbury North).

Ex-mayor Phil Bateman (Wednesfield North) was also shown the exit door.

He’d steeled himself for this morning’s result after watching the live stream of Birmingham’s election count on The Stirrer last night.

“I stayed up and watched that all the way through until 2.15, so I knew what was coming” he said.

“The truth is that in Wolverhampton we’ve held the line until now and done better than we should have done, but the dam finally burst.”

He attributed Labour’s failure to the abolition of the 10p income tax band, and Gordon Brown’s personal unpopularity.

As for losing his own seat, Bateman commented ruefully: “I went down with all flags flying, and perversely I really enjoyed the campaign.

“I had great support from my family and I shan’t be disappearing from Labour politics.”

(For a seat by seat breakdown go to wolverhampton link here )

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