The Labour Party in Liverpool is still looking for candidates for a number of seats ahead of May's crunch local elections.
Labour will be hoping to retain control of Liverpool City Council in the all out votes in May, but will expect some tough contest and some potential losses after a bruising few years for the city's ruling group.
May's elections will see the council move to all out elections, where every single seat will be contested. The change is one of a number that have come following the devastating Max Caller government inspection of the council in 2021.
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Other changes will see the number of councillors reduced from 90 to 85 and candidates will be contesting a radically reshaped electoral map. Where previously there had been three councillors representing 30 wards, the 85 members elected on May 4 will be split across 64 wards - with many single member wards.
Labour have been busy getting candidates selected for the available new seats but it appears they still need people to come forward.
An email has been sent out by Sheila Murphy, a former party director who is overseeing the Liverpool group, asking for candidates to put their names up for selection.
The email states: "Many of you will be aware that in May 2021 we will be having all out elections for the city council, under new boundaries. That means we have to find 85 candidates.
"Most of this work has been done and the majority of candidates have been selected but we are still looking for a few more. These vacancies are in areas that Labour do not hold at the moment. The important thing is that we have Labour candidates in place so that anyone who wants to vote Labour has the opportunity to do so."
The email adds: "If you are prepared to help the Labour Party in this way please return the attached application or email me."
Speaking about those upcoming elections, Liverpool University politics professor Jon Tonge told the ECHO he expects Labour to retain control of the council, but says they could lose some seats. He said last year's defections of some Labour councillors to the newly formed Liverpool Community Independents group could cause the ruling group some problems.
He added: "The good news for Labour is that most of those defectors- not all - are likely to stand (assuming they do stand) in areas where the Liberal Democrats are fairly weak so it won't be a case of a split Labour vote gifting seats. The Lib Dems gained three seats at the last council elections in 2021 and might expect to make a gain or two and the Greens might also be hopeful of at least one gain. Labour will certainly retain overall control but predicting the exact result is difficult given it will be an all-count contest fought across new wards."
Giving his view on the changing electoral map, he added: "Whilst the reduction in council size and all-out elections are not bad ideas, having some wards with two or three councillors is not good. People will wonder why Ward X can be represented by a single councillor, as will be most common, but Ward Y will have two, or even three. It would have been better to have introduced a one ward, one councillor system."
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