With this and assistance from Momentum and other volunteers, Williamson was able to win by 2,015 votes – a far bigger majority than he won by in 2010. This allowed him to twist the arm of HQ contacts to get increased support.
He received no support from HQ.įortunately for Williamson – and for Labour – he had a source feeding him information about the support his Derby South Blairite neighbour, Margaret Beckett was receiving. Meanwhile, down in the East Midlands, ex-MP Chris Williamson looked to win back a seat he lost in 2015 by a mere 41 votes. Ms Hilling fought a brave campaign but, on a night where Labour was making even astonishing gains like Canterbury, she lost by the narrow margin of 936 votes. She did not even receive a campaign manager from Labour central – her campaign had to be run by volunteers with no experience. Ms Hilling received so little support that she had no funding even for Labour garden stakes. Labour’s Julie Hilling had an excellent chance of ousting Tory Chris Green. Up in Bolton West, the Tories won the seat in 2015 by 801 votes. Labour’s north-west region ‘whipped’ all Labour’s city councillors in nearby Liverpool – against the protests of some – to help – not in either marginal seat but in the safe seat of Progress director Alison McGovern. The other, Weaver Vale, was held by a poor Tory MP with a strong Labour challenger. One, Wirral West, had an excellent Labour MP facing the double challenge of the UKIP candidate stepping down to give the Tory challenger a clear run and a self-funded Green candidate likely to divert some otherwise-Labour votes. In and around Merseyside were two extremely marginal constituencies.
This meant that – at the instigation of senior HQ figures and right-wing NEC members – almost no resources were made available for the fight to win Tory-held marginals or even to defend Labour-held ones. The Blairites at headquarters – national and in many regions – presumably either not believing Labour could win seats from the Tories, or in some cases even hoping for a poor result, decided to circle the wagons around existing seats, particularly favouring those occupied by so-called ‘centrists’. Now that polling stations have closed, the SKWAWKBOX can reveal that Labour’s HQ, in complete contrast to the aggressive, energetic campaign of the party’s leader, mandated a purely defensive strategy for this election – and cost Labour the keys to 10 Downing Street.