'The country is clambering for change'

MP for Ellesmere Port

NO-ONE apart from Rishi Sunak and the Conservative hierarchy around him knows which date he has in mind for the next General Election.

You will already have heard umpteen references to that election but in reality the Conservatives can hang on until January 2025 if they are so inclined.

What I can be sure of, however, is that the country is clambering for change. Of that I have little doubt.

The phenomenal results of the two by-elections last Thursday – one in the Midlands and the other in an area approaching the Home Counties – showed clearly that Labour is back in business and redrawing the political map.

Winning in these Tory strongholds – by Labour candidates Sarah Edwards in Tamworth in Staffordshire and Alistair Strathern in Mid-Bedfordshire - shows that people overwhelmingly want change and they are ready to put their faith in a changed Labour Party to deliver it. It is not unusual for governing parties to lose by elections mid term, but these defeats, in seats which would normally be considered ultra-safe, have put many Tory MPs in a state of near panic.

However, you don’t have to take my word for it. You might prefer to listen to election guru Professor Sir John Curtice who for many years has been the expert who appears on our television screens whenever by-elections are called. He specialises in electoral behaviour and researching political and social attitudes.

In Sir John’s view, the Conservatives are in as big an amount of trouble as they were prior to the political landslide in the 1997 General Election, which was followed by 13 years of Labour government. Results in Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire were, says Sir John, “one of the worst nights any government has endured”.

I believe voters across Mid-Bedfordshire, Tamworth and Britain want a Labour government determined to deliver for working people, with a proper plan to rebuild our country.

It will not surprise you to discover that my Party colleagues and I are already preparing to face the next General Election, whenever it is called. We are buoyed by results in a number of recent by-elections across the United Kingdom but we are taking nothing for granted. We want to meet as many people as possible on their doorsteps to get over the message that we will spend every day acting in their interests and focused on their priorities. We are looking to the future.

Come the next General Election, as I have previously mentioned in one of my columns, we will all be fighting on different boundaries, so for me and fellow MPs we will be meeting many new voters.

As previously mentioned in one of my columns, I will no longer be the MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston after the next General Election as the Neston part of the constituency will be joining the new Chester North and Neston constituency.

I will be very sorry to say farewell to many people living and around Neston, but I will be saying hello to many voters living in the Bromborough and Eastham wards of Wirral who will form part of the new Ellesmere Port and Bromborough constituency where I will be standing as the Labour candidate.