See Labour hung onto the Burn Vally ward on a meagre 17% turn out after for our local MP seat …who obediently voted through Starmer’s WFA and put Party before constituents.
I bet the Party members were told to get out at bayonet point and take their cats to vote in desperation.
The turnout figure says it all.
Only in Hartlepool.

The will of the people eh.

I would have expected a Reform win in the current climate

its a local election that has sod all to do with starmer or labour at a national level. be different if the local party had cocked things up at a local level and the candidate who did get elected might actually disagree with whats happening in westminster like many mp,s do privatly but haven,t the balls to disagree.

Our new MP was a local Councillor…Do you really expect any aspiring politician in any Party to stray from the Party line, it avoids them having to think..
They’re the same from top to bottom ….Party member Councillors, their loyalty is to their Party not the voters, at all levels.
The quicker Party politics are banned at a local level and Local Councillors are all independents residing in the ward they represent, the better.

cannot agree more with your comment on how local politics should be. just by being a local independant you are judged on the work you have actually done and not done at national level when coming up for re election.

I thought so as well, Amanda Knapper was the Reform candidate she has had quite a few goes at being elected, I can’t fault her for effort. I don’t think Farage is doing himself or Reform any favours, his face is never out of the media but at the same time has never turned up in Clayton, he appears more interested in supporting Trump.

It’s amazing how many Councillors live nowhere near the Wards they supposedly represent.
How can a Councillor who lives in a leafy area on the edge of town, who ’ represents’ some sink estate, have a clue what it’s like to live there and know what the real problems are.
Turning up for a few visits to see if the ‘locals’ are happy hardly compares to a resident who lives there and experiences the problems others do…they can’t drive away after a visit, they live there.

With a turnout of 17% it’s obvious next to no one cared enough to vote.