There are just under 2 weeks left before Whickham North and Swalwell ward goes to the polls in a by-election to Gateshead Council. Yesterday, 12 Lib Dems delivered the whole ward with our latest Focus. The ward was once a Labour stronghold but they have lost every local election here since 1992. Nevertheless, Labour made the ward their top target in the North East a decade ago and came within about 20 votes of retaking it from the Lib Dems. Since then the Labour vote has been melting gradually away. So it was interesting to see Labour out in the ward yesterday. It's a rare event so make a note of it in your diary!
We did notice that Labour were canvassing the even-numbered houses on Whaggs Lane. Sadly, for Labour, these houses are actually in Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward, not Whickham North and Swalwell! The other side of the street is where the by-election is being held.
Meanwhile, Chipping Barnet based Labour MP for Gateshead Central and Whickham, Mark Ferguson, took to Twitter (now X) to show the world he is backing the Labour candidate in the by-election. Yet the group shot he included in his post did not include the Labour candidate. You would have thought it was sensible to include him! But the mystery of Labour's campaign doesn't stop there. Take a close look at the leaflets they are holding and none of them include the Labour candidate's name, at least on the visible side. Instead, these are leaflets about Mark Ferguson MP. Perhaps there was a Labour cock-up and they failed to get a by-election leaflet ready to deliver yesterday. Or maybe there is just a dose of incompetence in Labour's ranks. Booze up and breweries spring to mind.
You can read Mark Ferguson's post on this link.
There are two other parties in this contest: Greens and Tories. There has been no literature from the Greens. Perhaps they are still licking their wounds after their disastrous performance in the Bridges by-election last month. They fell from 2nd place to third while the Lib Dems jumped from 4th to 2nd. The ward is the only target the Greens have in Gateshead. And there has been nothing from the Tories either though the last time they delivered a local election leaflet in the ward was way back in the 1980s!
