Post by BossMan on Apr 10, 2020 21:11:02 GMT
BRADFORD EAST
The constituency boundary changes of 2010 led to the revival of the Bradford East constituency name. There had been a rather different previous incarnation of the seat which had existed between 1885 and 1974. However, the 2010 version was a successor seat to the incongruously named Bradford North. This had been usually held by the Conservatives until 1964 when it was taken by Labour’s Ben Ford.
Ford held the seat for nearly two decades until he was deselected in 1983, in favour of a left wing member of Militant, Pat Wall. Ford stood as an independent, and combined with the Labour Party’s national electoral disaster that year, allowed the Conservative candidate Geoffrey Lawler to emerge as a one off winner on little over a third of the vote.
Wall stood again in 1987 and was successful, but died in 1990 at the age of 57. His successor in the by-election was Labour’s Terry Rooney, who was the first Mormon MP.
The Conservative vote declined at every general election over the following 15 years. In 2005 there was a significant shift to the Liberal Democrats from Labour due mostly to a backlash from voters over the war in Iraq. The Lib Dems have also long had a strong local base in this part of Bradford, unlike anywhere else in the city, which put them in a good position for the 2010 general election, when the constituency name finally changed to what it is today.
David Ward, who had stood as the Lib Dem candidate on numerous occasions since the 1990 by-election and had been a councillor since 1984, defeated Terry Rooney in Bradford East by 365 votes.
Ward was embroiled in numerous controversies and accusations of antisemitism over comments he made regarding Israel during his time as an MP, which led to him being suspended from the parliamentary party in 2013. In 2015, as with most other Liberal Democrat MPs, he lost his seat – by 7,084 votes to Labour’s Imran Hussain. In 2017, Ward stood as an Independent when he was initially selected but then removed as the Lib Dem candidate. Labour increased their majority to 20,540 while Ward came a distant third, though the new Lib Dem candidate secured just 1.8% of the vote.
However, the Lib Dems remain competitive with Labour in local elections and they have long been able to count on Idle and Thackley, and almost always Eccleshill in recent years. They have also had councillors elected in recent years in most of the other wards: Bolton and Undercliffe, Bowling and Barkerend and Bradford Moor. The exception is Little Horton, which is Labour’s best ward and contains the largest Asian community. In 2012, however, it saw the leader of Bradford MBC, Ian Greenwood, narrowly defeated by a Respect candidate in the wake of George Galloway’s victory in the Bradford West by-election. The Conservatives have performed very poorly in local elections here in recent years – their last councillor was elected in 2010 in Bowling and Barkerend.
Labour’s majority dipped to 18,144 in 2019 over the Conservative candidate. Despite the Lib Dems’ considerable success in local elections, it no longer seems to be translating to parliamentary level.
The constituency boundary changes of 2010 led to the revival of the Bradford East constituency name. There had been a rather different previous incarnation of the seat which had existed between 1885 and 1974. However, the 2010 version was a successor seat to the incongruously named Bradford North. This had been usually held by the Conservatives until 1964 when it was taken by Labour’s Ben Ford.
Ford held the seat for nearly two decades until he was deselected in 1983, in favour of a left wing member of Militant, Pat Wall. Ford stood as an independent, and combined with the Labour Party’s national electoral disaster that year, allowed the Conservative candidate Geoffrey Lawler to emerge as a one off winner on little over a third of the vote.
Wall stood again in 1987 and was successful, but died in 1990 at the age of 57. His successor in the by-election was Labour’s Terry Rooney, who was the first Mormon MP.
The Conservative vote declined at every general election over the following 15 years. In 2005 there was a significant shift to the Liberal Democrats from Labour due mostly to a backlash from voters over the war in Iraq. The Lib Dems have also long had a strong local base in this part of Bradford, unlike anywhere else in the city, which put them in a good position for the 2010 general election, when the constituency name finally changed to what it is today.
David Ward, who had stood as the Lib Dem candidate on numerous occasions since the 1990 by-election and had been a councillor since 1984, defeated Terry Rooney in Bradford East by 365 votes.
Ward was embroiled in numerous controversies and accusations of antisemitism over comments he made regarding Israel during his time as an MP, which led to him being suspended from the parliamentary party in 2013. In 2015, as with most other Liberal Democrat MPs, he lost his seat – by 7,084 votes to Labour’s Imran Hussain. In 2017, Ward stood as an Independent when he was initially selected but then removed as the Lib Dem candidate. Labour increased their majority to 20,540 while Ward came a distant third, though the new Lib Dem candidate secured just 1.8% of the vote.
However, the Lib Dems remain competitive with Labour in local elections and they have long been able to count on Idle and Thackley, and almost always Eccleshill in recent years. They have also had councillors elected in recent years in most of the other wards: Bolton and Undercliffe, Bowling and Barkerend and Bradford Moor. The exception is Little Horton, which is Labour’s best ward and contains the largest Asian community. In 2012, however, it saw the leader of Bradford MBC, Ian Greenwood, narrowly defeated by a Respect candidate in the wake of George Galloway’s victory in the Bradford West by-election. The Conservatives have performed very poorly in local elections here in recent years – their last councillor was elected in 2010 in Bowling and Barkerend.
Labour’s majority dipped to 18,144 in 2019 over the Conservative candidate. Despite the Lib Dems’ considerable success in local elections, it no longer seems to be translating to parliamentary level.