A leader that gives every sign he thinks that rules are for suckers is the last thing this country needs.
Laurie Noble, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Author: Mike C
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Whoah! Hold your horses!
Keir Starmer will not be the leader of the Labour Party at the next election!
That question seems to be settled. I’m not sure anything else is sorted, nor should it be. Why the rush into the unknown?Everyone knows that Andy Burnham wants the job. Everyone knows that Wes Streeting wants the job. It seems clear that Andy Burnham would win a contest within the Parliamentary Labour Party. It’s not clear that Andy Burnham wants a contest.
Keir Starmer is considering his position.
This could get very messy
The only person that can really dictate the process is Keir Starmer and we really need for him to put his foot down….firmly!
Neither Andy Burnham, nor Wes Streeting, nor indeed any other candidate, is in any position to hit the ground running.
Starmer is the only one who can hold it together until they are ready
Starmer needs to accept that he’s going to have to handover when the successor is chosen and they’re ready to go.
There’s no reason that Starmer can’t invite all declared candidates to start the preparatory work before the contest begins. In fact, I think he should insist upon it. He should instruct his ministers to be completely open and give as much access as is possible.
The end of that process is the time for the party to choose the leader, and the party can test their readiness to take over.
I’m no longer a member, but I trust the membership once there are programmes for Government that can be put to them.
collage of images – all creative commons from wikimedia.
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Just to be different!
Good News!
LabourList, the independent platform for Labour supporters, published its roundup of positive news this morning.
Despite the challenging times for Labour, the update is surprisingly encouraging.
The LabourList summary highlights several promising initiatives that show why having a Labour Government matters:
- Proposals to protect unmarried couples by ensuring access to shared property and inheritance rights, addressing the current lack of financial safeguards when relationships end, which often leaves vulnerable individuals—especially survivors of domestic abuse—at risk.
- Plans to double the maximum duration of closure orders for dodgy high street shops.
- Measures requiring tech companies to automatically block nude images on children’s smartphones and tablets by default.
- A £20 million investment enabling high street opticians to refer patients directly to NHS hospital eye services.
And it doesn’t stop there.
This morning the government announced a £4.5 billion plan to expand walking, wheeling and cycling, aiming to build 5,000 new active‑travel routes, install 10,000 safer crossings, and shift more everyday journeys—especially school runs—away from cars.
- Delivering this will save households money, including up to £1,700 per year if a second car is replaced with active travel for short trips
- Improve public health, potentially freeing up 1.7 million GP appointments and reducing 4.4 million sick days annually
- Cut carbon emissions and reduce congestion
- Boost local economies through healthier, more connected communities.
Locally, the emphasis on walkability fits very well with Stretford’s resurgence and indeed Urmston’s long term prosperity. Urban centres are increasingly the biggest gainers from trends towards local provision.
So, in this vein, last night’s Planning Committee welcomed the application for Grub’s open food hall application in Stretford. The assumption was very much on a walkable destination.
And lastly, keeping up the positive news, I was delighted to see that our hospital trust MFT, which runs most of our hospital facilities in Trafford and Manchester including Trafford General, Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe Hospital amongst others has in the words of Manchester Evening News surged up the rankings.
I have a personal reason for taking particular pleasure in MFT’s improved performance having served as a governor of the trust for the past three years. So I know how hard everyone within the trust has worked to achieve this. Big congratulations to everyone xxx
(It looks like I am soon to submit to a major procedure in the hands of the trust, so I need to be nice haha)
Featured Image: “Can you guess which house the Manchester City fans live in?” by Dunk 🐝, CC BY 2.0 gently cropped
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Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights
The recent local election results have reshaped Trafford’s political landscape. Voter turnout increased significantly from last time, reflecting the strength of the message voters were sending. The Green Party has emerged as the most popular in Trafford, but the electoral map suggests an upcoming period of no overall control. It is unlikely that this situation will reverse in the near future.
From Wikipedia: Trafford UK ward map 2026 – 2026 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election – Wikipedia Several incumbents were unseated by new challengers, signalling a clear demand for change. The extent to which this reflects a desire for a change in government, or a shift within Trafford itself remains to be seen. What is certain is that it was never an endorsement to continue as before.
Sadly, I think Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford’s Labour Group has given himself too little time to reflect on changes that could improve the party’s local fortune. He’s made minimal change to an executive that too often takes a back seat to both the leader and to senior officers. He’s got to be prepared to show the door to those underperforming and not wait for the electorate to do the job for him, particularly since the electorate have just demonstrated that they will often take out the better members of his team.
The loss of two good cabinet members has forced a minimal change on Tom and I do welcome the promotions of Keleigh Glenton and Barry Winstanley to the executive. I just think Tom should have made deeper changes. We have been hopeless at communicating on the most basic universal services that the public judges us by.
The Labour Party has lost the art of talking to and listening to people. How often do our lead members go out in front of residents to explain the state of their roads or why bins are not emptied etc? Their answer to everything is to tell us report, but there’s no engagement on the question as to how it’s allowed to happen in the first place. Too often it feels like we’re dealing with a pencil monitor. You need the right chit or you won’t make progress. If we do the right thing, jump through the right hoops to report and it’s still not done, then you can go to your ward councillor, but they never get an answer as to why it’s allowed to happen in the first place.
There’s genuine opportunities to improve the relationship with voters, but it won’t be done via short form videos on TikTok and Instagram. It requires lead members who genuinely look like they take responsibility for their service areas, are willing to go out and engage with the public, take some flak, show some empathy and follow up.
Labour’s on course to lose control of Trafford Council next year. It has a choice to just carry on as it is doing and blame it all on Labour’s national leadership or it can start properly communicating and explaining how it’s meeting various challenges.
Featured image created by Gemini AI: https://gemini.google.com/share/84281c664184
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One week to go
There’s an election going on. Who’d know it?
It’s a daily conversation on the media. We’re told it’s going to be a defining moment. Yet in Trafford, speaking for myself, in Lostock and Barton ward, it doesn’t feel to have caught alight.
I know the Labour team here have been working hard, I’ve even delivered a couple of leaflet rounds myself, but where’s the buzz? And ok, I’d like to think we’ve worked hard as Labour for the ward, but we know that Brand-Labour is not at peak popularity, so why is it so quiet?
I’ve seen a few Green Party posters and garden stakes, so there’s some activity out there and they’re on record as saying they’re targeting Longford ward. I received a national leaflet from their party, but nothing local.
I know Reform voters will be an element in this election. Reform have been the big winners in council by-elections this past 12 months. However, those by-election wins were not achieved under the radar. They employed the exact same methods that the established parties apply. We all saw them pile into Gorton and Denton. Yes, I know they have their own TV station and are skilled in social media, so they’re not without election resources that are being applied in Lostock and Barton, but there’s still no substitute for knocking on doors. I think Reform will be delighted to get to 250 votes here.
The Conservative Party in Trafford is an enigma. They remain the natural challenge to Labour in Lostock and Barton, but they’re flailing. The centre ground abandoned, I see no evidence of a strategy to capture the agenda beyond riding the occasional wave of discontent.
Making up the five parties, we have the Forward with Timperley Party standing as Lib Dems here. I’m being rude, but they really do need take an interest in life outside Timperley. If anybody here has received engagement from the Lib Dems, I’ll take that back.
I think the energy of an election can be a good thing that enables the repair of a party to begin, but where is that energy? The demographics of Trafford still have favourable segments for Labour, the so called Urban progressives and those with young families, for example. So, it will retain a good portion of its vote. At the same time, those segments moving away from Labour are spreading themselves thinly across too many alternatives. There’s a sense that Labour are braced for a trap-door to open, but watching their opponents fight over the lever. I don’t know how it will pan out but my feeling is that the lever will be barely pulled.
Most of the postal votes are already in I think, so for many the election is over. But where was the debate, where was the challenge?
Elections are a time to scrutinise.
I want to celebrate Labour’s family hubs, the sure start centres of today, but I want the party to be challenged on whether they’re reaching every family that needs them.
We’ve seen a lot of road patching in the last couple of months, are we extracting value for money? Are the patches going to last? Are they sufficient quality? Other parties should give their alternative approaches.
Labour at least has a manifesto. I have not been able to find a manifesto from any of the other parties standing here in Lostock and Barton. Isn’t that appalling!
I want to know how other parties propose how to address Trafford’s continuing budget deficit. Trafford’s Conservatives have put together a video at least touching upon the issue, even if their identified waste had no connection to the budget.
Despite the absence of contesting programs, the one thing I will guarantee is that all parties that don’t lose all their seats, will see the election as ringing endorsement of every approach each party adopts for the next 12 months.
Lastly, despite my criticism of each and every party, the greatest culpability probably lies with ourselves. We don’t have to allow this state of affairs. We’ve never had greater ability to hold hustings and publicise them. We have allowed ourselves to be passive observers of an election when it’s our only chance to hold our borough’s leadership to account. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Prediction Votes
Most Votes across Trafford Labour Party 2nd Green Party 3rd Conservative Party 4th Reform Party 5th Liberal Democratic Party I’m not going to predict seats. There’s some close ones, so it’ll be interesting nonetheless.
Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vehicles-racing-on-a-racetrack-12646461/
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May 2026 Local Elections: Predictions for Trafford
Whose flagship will run aground?
Nominations have closed on the May 7th local elections. In the 21 wards of Trafford, we have five parties contesting every seat:
Party Candidates Conservative 21 Greens 21 Labour 21 Lib Dems 21 Reform 21 The Reform breakaway party Advance, are contesting 6 seats. In addition there’s 2 independents and there is a lone Social Democratic Party candidate in Sale Central.
What’s going to happen when the votes are counted next day on May 8th?
Ben Walker is a respected pollster who came closest to predicting the last General Election result. He writes for the New Statesman and is founder of the Britain Elects aggregation site. He’s also a Labour Councillor in not so far off, Chester. I have a lot of time for Ben.
A Labour bloodbath across England? Won’t it be worse in Trafford?
If that’s the forecast for England, what on earth is it going to like in Trafford where we’ve been hit by one the worst government settlements in the country? We’ve had to put council tax up beyond the maximum allowed, we’ve had to borrow millions just to keep the town hall doors open. It’s surely got to be worse here?
Here’s my take.
I predict Labour will remain comfortably the largest party and will win the popular vote.
There will be no bloodbath here.
Yet, it could still be seminal in terms of the Tories vacating their position as contenders for power.
It’s often that the biggest factor is the quality of your opposition. Labour is extremely fortunate that the current Tories are contesting their right flank more than trying to win the centre ground.
Clearly, the presence of Reform and Advance are factors in this, but it’s got to be said there’s little evidence of the Tories wanting to widen their appeal. We’ll see, but this is Trafford, it was once their flagship.
Labour will be glad too, to have a Lib Dem party in Trafford that’s made itself into a single issue party focused entirely on Timperley.
The Greens may prove themselves to be the biggest threat, but it’s proved hard for them to get a foothold in the north of the borough. If they can take a seat in Old Trafford, they’ll be pleased with their progress, but only if they hold on to their Altrincham and Hale seats.
Reform managed to lose a seat this week to the Greens in a Kent by-election. The public are picking up that Reform can’t run councils. They’re struggling in Kent, they’re putting Council Tax up in Worcestershire by the largest amount in the country.
The real question will be as to whether a solid performance across the wards by Labour will be seen as a ringing endorsement of their programme. I would argue that you need to look at the total Labour vote, not just the seats.
2024 votes across Trafford
Labour 29,338 41.83% Conservatives 17,645 25.16% Green 12,643 18.03% Lib Dem 7,983 11.38% Reform 1,595 2.27% Independents 842 1.20% TUSC 88 0.13% 70,134 Can the Greens come second?
Reform only contested a handful of seats in 2024, so it’s inevitable their vote will grow. Could we see the Greens come second in the vote this time around? It would only require a 3.57% swing from the Conservatives. Given the disproportionate impact of Reform, I am going to stick my neck out and make that my prediction.
It’s possible Labour lose more votes, but it’s increasingly likely the Tories will suffer the bigger fall from grace.
