Candidates are in short supply for Labour and Reform

 

I have to admit that finding candidates for local elections is something of a challenge. Finding candidates who want to win is even more challenging. Here in Gateshead, the Lib Dems started selecting candidates just weeks after the last local elections in May 2024. With 66 to find, we decided to start early. We have 60 chosen so far and the final prospective candidates are currently being interviewed.

So how are the other parties doing in Gateshead? We are not aware of any functioning Your Party. The Conservative Party has not won a council seat here for 34 years. It wouldn't surprise me if some of their previous candidates are soon to be reincarnated as Reformers. The Greens have 3 candidates in Bridges ward but we have heard nothing on the grapevine about standing in the other 21 wards. But what of Reform and Labour?

Some interesting Facebook appeals for candidates for Reform have been circulating recently. Take a look at the one above. Similar appeals were made at the end of last year. And they have been repeated in the past few days. That sounds to me Reform are struggling.

And Labour? Firstly, we need to consider the large number of retirements of Labour councillors. We don't have exact numbers but we have a good idea whose going and whose staying on for the electoral battle. This is making it doubly difficult for Labour. We had heard that one ward, held by Labour since the Middle Ages, has one candidate in place (all Gateshead council wards have three councillors). The Labour ward branch met recently, we are told, and only 3 members turned up and none of them wanted to stand.

I still think both Reform and Labour will fill all their vacancies, even if it means scraping the bottom of the barrel, indeed scraping below the bottom of the barrel. But I could be wrong.....