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IWCA on target for 2006

9 May 2005

Oxford IWCA is poised to take further seats on Oxford City Council at next year’s elections after encouraging results on 5 May.

Unfortunately, our parliamentary candidate Maurice Leen—who shone brightly at pre-elections hustings—did not see his local support transferred into crosses on ballot papers, presumably because many who would have voted IWCA locally had been persuaded that to support us this time round would be a wasted vote and could ‘let the Tories back in’. With no national profile and in the face of a tiresome—and damaging—doorstep smear campaign which was particularly difficult to counteract in the areas of Oxford East where we have no base, Maurice still gained 892 votes, positioning him above UKIP.

While we would have welcomed a larger share of the vote in the Parliamentary competition, the purpose of standing in this election was to build the IWCA’s profile outside our strongholds of Blackbird Leys and Town Furze/Wood Farm. Judging by the contacts that have come forward, this objective has already been achieved.

In the Blackbird Leys city council by-election—brought about by the defection of Labour’s Val Smith to the ‘safer’ Leys and Lye county council seat—the IWCA’s Kelly Webster polled the highest vote for the organisation so far. Kelly, who had no previous political profile, received 566 votes. The 15% increase in support in the ward since last year’s council election proves that the IWCA now has a solid base of support on the estate. Unfortunately for Kelly and the IWCA, the General Election saw Labour voters turning out in larger numbers than usual and off the back of this Labour’s low-profile candidate, Rae Humberstone, stole the seat with 969 votes. Rae, who was beaten by the IWCA’s Stuart Craft last year, now has a year to prove himself before facing the IWCA again.

The IWCA county council candidate for Barton and Churchill, James Craft, received a very respectable 468 votes in a county division that has a large middle class population. Though James’ vote was nowhere near the winning Lib Dem tally of 2, 691, he took enough votes from Labour’s Mick McAndrews—an obsessive enemy of the IWCA—to lose him his seat. This sets James up to contest the Barton city council seat (which consists primarily of the council estate) next year.

We also got the vote that we were looking for in the Leys and Lye county election. Delvise Saunders and Shanda Radbourne received 903 votes and 970 votes respectively. Labour’s Val Smith and Barbara Gatehouse won the seat with 3134 and 2536 votes. Considering the General Election boost to Labour’s vote, the fact that neither IWCA candidates had ever stood for election before, and most crucially the fact that a third of the division (the Lye Valley ward) had not seen any IWCA activity until this election, this result was a very good one for the IWCA and again shows that where we are best known we can expect a strong show of suport.

It is interesting to note that according to The Guardian ‘Labour party chiefs are preparing to read the riot act to their own officials after the far-right British National Party took advantage of poor campaigning and voter disenchantment in Barking, East London, to secure its highest share of the vote in a parliamentary election.’ (‘Labour opens inquest after BNP’s surge’, 7 May 2005). Apparently senior Labour officials have announced that they plan to call the constituency party—and its MP, Margaret Hodge—to account for a lack lustre reaction to the BNP’s heavily advertised surge into the constituency. The contrast betwee Labour’s ‘lack lustre’ campaign against the BNP in Barking and its all-out effort to stop the IWCA in Oxford East indicates who New Labour prioritise as the real enemy.