Lamesley action day

 

Gateshead Lib Dems had yet another action day on Saturday. This time it was in Lamesley ward. It was also the 2nd action day in Lamesley (soon to be renamed Birtley North and Lamesley) in the past month. 500 doors were knocked on and there was a positive response to us. The returns were terrible for Labour. This is not just in Lamesley. Everywhere we are canvassing, the result for Labour has been dire.

I was unable to get to the canvass myself as I was working on another Focus on Saturday. I caught up with the team for lunch where we were able to look through the canvass results. We also had a discussion about Labour's struggles to get candidates for the local elections in Gateshead next year. As there will be new boundaries, all 66 seats are up for election. A couple of weeks ago, a well placed source told me that Labour have only identified 42 possible candidates. More and more Labour councillors have indicated they will be retiring next year, adding to Labour's candidate woes.

If Labour are to avoid a repeat of what happened in Co Durham in May, when they dropped from over 50 seats to just 5, they had better pull their finger out in Gateshead, or face extinction.