Labour lose Eltham by-election by substantial margin
Image courtesy Matt Hartley via Twitter
Labour have tonight lost a by-election in Greenwich borough by a substantial margin.
Former councillor Charlie Davis won the Eltham Town and Avery Hill seat for the Conservatives.
The scale of defeat will cause alarm bells within Labour. The result wasn’t close with the victor on 1,522 and Labour trailing on 981.
As ever with by-elections, local and national issues intermingle. More widely Labour lost votes to both the left and right across the country tonight following a pattern seen recently alongside plummetting opinion polls.
In Kent they were beaten by the Greens in Ashford.
The election loss in Eltham came the same day Greenwich council’s cabinet agreed to sell off a number of sites borough-wide.
Despite the ever growing housing crises, none were selected to be utilised for new council homes.
This could be a sign the new government are reluctant to fund truly affordable housing and support councils to build despite an ever growing crisis and cost to taxpayers, preferring instead to maintain prior affordable housing funding levels via the Affordable Housing Programme as was stated in Labour’s manifesto.
Meanwhile things worsen across London as existing funding proves far from sufficient. Newham Council have requested a bail out due to emergency and temporary housing costs rising 936 per cent.
Greenwich are on the same trajectory meaning cuts elsewhere in other departments, which will further threaten other seats.
For now Labour retain solid control of Greenwich, but from what I hear there’s more than a few jitters in the party about what Starmer and Reeves are doing and what sort of strategy they have.
As is often said, by-elections bring out protest votes. True, but this is just months after a sizeable majority win in a general election – albeit on a low turnout.
Still, few if any governments have ever shed support so rapidly as votes splinter both left and right.
RBG are proposing to sell off the former Eltham Tram Sheds (previously public toilets) after allowing them to fall into serious disrepair. There are holes in the roof and the gutters have not been cleared for years.
100k was spent on two ‘Eltham’ signs, one beside an historical Lychgate which is part of St Johns Church. The second opposite the Catholic Church further up the High Street. Both are complete eyesores and out of place. The money would have been better spent on restoring these former Tram Sheds to a much needed High Street toilet facility previously closed by RGB. It costs RBG £900.00 annually to pressure wash the ‘Eltham’ sign which seem to be made from Portland stone.
Hope this helps the Labour Party to start to take this region seriously, rather than focusing all its attention on the marginal regions, and be incentivised to deliver some actual service to Greenwich!
Funny that Greenwich Labour suddenly have the jitters. Despite a decade of mismanagement, incompetence in so many council departments and letting /making so many high streets turn into dumps while ignoring issues for residents. Obviously Kiers fault after 3 months in the job. My god they have their heads so rammed up each other’s plant pots.