Wigan: Modest beginnings, a foundation to build on

Wigan Left Unity candidate Stephen Hall reflects on their local election results

wigan-candidates

Well done to all seven of our Left Unity candidates in Wigan. In the space of a few short months since Left Unity was founded, we have taken on Labour in one of its strongest heartlands in the country, and, in the face of an insurgent UKIP and heightened right-wing xenophobic views towards Europe and migrant workers, averaged 4.1% in the wards we stood in, on the basis of an anti-racist, left of Labour platform.

We got 796 votes in total, which is 392 more than the Lib Dems got in the entire borough and 662 more than the BNP. We also beat the Tories in the Wigan West ward where our candidate, Hazel Duffy, got 252 votes and a creditable 8.8% of the ballot.

These are very modest beginnings. We need to learn from any mistakes we made, of which there were likely many, and build on this foundation in the coming months and years. To do that we will need to root ourselves in our respective communities, and get stuck into the hard graft of day to day grassroots work that goes along with that. Our future success will depend on it.

More Left Unity local election results
Other parties’ results in Wigan


14 comments

14 responses to “Wigan: Modest beginnings, a foundation to build on”

  1. Kris says:

    Well done guys, a really great start.

    • Tony Free says:

      The growth of any new political party is not a straight line it’s a logarithmic curve. These first results are outstanding and show that once the media decide LU is newsworthy we will be the main party of the Left.

  2. Filippo says:

    Not so good, not so bad, but a fresh start. By the way, please say loudly that Farage is Thatcher’s scum

  3. mike says:

    Not such a modest beginning I’d say! Well done all.

  4. Coolfonz says:

    8.8pc is much better than “creditable”. Well done.

  5. Merry Cross says:

    Really impressive in fact. Encouraging too. Thank you all.

  6. Susan Pashkoff says:

    This is impressive for our first outing, we need to do some constructive analysis, see what was done well and what wasn’t. I am proud of the hard work that everyone who ran and those that supported their campaigns did! Well done, really this is a Labour heartland, we only were campaigning as a party for a short period. We did far better than I expected; I was hoping to get 1% to simply see if we resonated with people … as so many have told me, this is a marathon not a sprint. Well done!

  7. Keith says:

    Congratulations to all involved for achieving something positive in such a short time. As the dust begins to settle after Sunday, we MUST develop an organised and effective response to the blatant racial hatred and propagandist lies coming from UKIP / Con / Lab parties as a matter of urgency.

  8. David Melvin says:

    Well done comrades! It reminds me of your local lad Gerrard Winstanley:”Freedom is the man that will turn the world upside down, therefore no wonder he hath enemies.” All the best in turning Wigan upside downm

  9. Philip Clayton says:

    My warmest congratulations. Despite delivering over 5,000 leaflets, with support from all over London, we managed only 107 votes in Barnet. However, where we were able to talk to people we did get a warm reception and it does look as though we will have some genuine new members as a result of our activities.

    Unfortunately the most right-wing conservative council in the country have won again, albeit with a majority of one; but the inability of Labour to win against a widely loathed bunch of shysters is disturbing.

    Unfortunately the Labour leader offered virtually nothing in the way of principles, even saying that she was not against private provision of services. Her policy for the biggest housing crisis in the whole of the UK was to set up a housing commission; i.e. do nothing.

    There have been a series of scandals and despite these she has not been able to blow the Tories out of the water.This is a council that has regularly broken the law and has behaved in ways that could politely be described as verging on corruption.Yet still Labour could not cross the line and that is going to be the story of the general election as well. I cannot see Ed Millipede winning.

  10. Well done every one. I wish I could be with you because I am drowning in a sea of blue. Not even the Greens stand here.

    I think Miliband analysis that the british people are voting on immigration is wrong. Which city in Britain has the most immigrants? London. Yet UKIP did badly here. UKIP is trading on FEAR. AND THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MOST AFRAID ARE THOSE WHO HAVE LITTLE OR NO EXPERIENCE OF IMMIGRANTS.

    Cecily Sumner

  11. Robboh says:

    One must learn to walk before he can run…just don’t take too long.

  12. Ian says:

    Building ….. brick by brick, not easy but inevitable. My best regards to all in Wigan.


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