Birtley delivery

 

Gateshead Lib Dems recently had an action day in Birtley but I was unable to attend. Instead, I agreed to take a couple of patches which I would deliver in my own time. The problem with that was that it took 2 weeks for me to take delivery of the Focuses. At the moment we have huge quantities of literature to produce and deliver so the handover of the Birtley patches to me kept getting delayed. On Saturday I received 2 bundles and maps. I delivered the first on Sunday and the second on Tuesday.

Birtley is currently the most marginal ward in Gateshead. In the last election, May 2024, we took the seat from Labour with a majority of 5. In May 2023, we won our first seat there from Labour. The majority was substantially higher than 5! I tend to be cautious nowadays when speculating on potential election results in wards in Gateshead but I will go as far as saying in Birtley that Labour appear to have given up. Labour needs to find 3 candidates to contest the ward. We are not aware of what the remaining Labour councillor in Birtley is planning to do. Will he retire at the election or contest it but with the ward now heavily weighted against Labour. Even if he does stand again, Labour need to find another two candidates but at the moment, it appears they have no one. No names are cropping up. No Labour activity has been detected. It is as if Labour have packed their bags and left.

I've never known Labour not to field a candidate in Gateshead for each vacancy. They've run the council for 52 years and have been the dominant party here since the 1930s. Could this be coming to an end?