News from Labour Matters

Labour’s River Ward by-election candidate gets leadership boost

The River Ward by-election for Medway Council on 12 August is a straight fight between Labour and the Conservatives, as the results of the 2007 council elections show. Labour’s defending a seat in a ward which returned one Labour and one Tory councillor, so it can only help that Labour’s candidate, John Jones, was recently given the assistance of one of the Leadership candidates:

Ed Miliband stopped off in Brompton last Wednesday afternoon to help prospective councillor John Jones canvass ahead of the by-election on August 12.

The election was prompted by the resignation of Bill Esterson, who was elected MP for Sefton Central, near Liverpool in the general election in May. Busy Mr Miliband shot straight across town to Twydall Labour Club in Twydall Lane to talk to party members and forward his own leadership campaign before boarding a train back to Westminster.

Mr Miliband said: “It is very, very important to return a Labour councillor in place of Bill.

“There are four and a half thousand Labour councillors across the country. They are the engine of Labour because they have actually got some power.”

Read the full article.

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