The Conservatives were left feeling blue in the local elections after losing their leader in a shock upset in Orrell. Michael Winstanley was ousted from his long held seat by Labour’s Dave Wood with a margin of just 34 votes.
Mr Winstanley said he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ to lose by such a small margin. He pointed to the national picture to explain why the Conservatives faltered so heavily on the night. “I’m obviously bitterly disappointed to lose by 34 votes, but that’s politics and you’ve just got to take it on the chin,” he said.
“I’d like to thank all the people in Orrell and Billinge who supported and voted for me. I can only assume that it’s a reaction to what’s happening nationally. But the Labour party didn’t win by much, so it just goes to show Orrell is a marginal ward, it will remain a marginal ward and I’m hoping to fight it next year in the elections.”
Coun Wood received 1387 votes, Mr Winstanley was close behind with 1353 while the Liberal Democrat candidate for Orrell Neil Duncan gained 313 votes. Speaking afterwards, Dave Wood said he felt ‘elated’ to beat the leader of the opposition and said Labour’s performance nationally sent a strong message regarding the future of Boris Johnson.
“I feel great to take the scalp of the Tory leader, there's nothing to beat that, I feel elated about it. I’m so thankful to the people of Orrell who turned out to vote for me. It was a small margin but it was very important that every person who wanted to vote Labour got out and voted.
“I predict a telephone call to Downing Street, followed very shortly by a taxi for Johnson. He’s a liability, the Tories know it, they’re very ruthless people, I think he’ll be gone shortly. Sooner rather than later.”
Labour now control 61 seats in Wigan Council, a gain of three for 2022. The loss of the Orrell ward sees the Conservatives whittled down to seven councillors.
The other two Labour gains were losses for the independents in Wigan which leaves only seven of them in the council. The Independent Network has four out of these seven.
This year’s local elections saw a low turnout for Wigan at 26 per cent and Ashton-in-Makerfield at 26.7 per cent.
In a successful night for Labour, the evening ended on a sour note at Leigh Sports Village as the reds were accused of running a negative campaign by the one Conservative who won a seat in Leigh.
Coun Edward Houlton condemned their campaign as 'vile', citing their position on the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) and High Speed Rail 2 in Lowton and Golborne as a fallacy. Leigh MP James Grundy agreed on this point.
Edward Houlton, retained his seat in Lowton East for the Conservatives. After his victory he sent a fiery message to the Labour party by stating he had “never seen such a vile election in my entire life”.
At the Leigh count, Independent Network leader Stuart Gerrard retained his seat in Atherton with a healthy majority. Independent candidate Andy Brown came close to Labour’s Barry Taylor in the second closest contest in Leigh - but fell short by just over 200 votes.
Coun Keith Cunliffe, deputy leader for Labour in Wigan, said: “I think it has been a fantastic election for the Wigan borough Labour group, especially considering we took Orrell. All the increases we were hoping for came off.
“Bearing in mind last year we kept hold of all of our seats, this year we actually gained some. It came down to the cost of living crisis and energy prices and how the Government was incapable of coming up with a solution for people on low wages.
“We have gained seats in the council where we have very little to actually gain. We will continue to run Wigan Council and we hope to continue to be one of the most outstanding councils in the country.”
Coun Cunliffe was of the belief that Labour were dominant due to the handling of the cost of living crisis by the Conservatives, but Leigh’s MP, who was in attendance at the count in Leigh believed their campaign contained falsehoods.
“We were disappointed to see the Labour campaign saying that we were the ones that put forward this HS2 in Lowton and Golborne and tried to claim CAZ was not their idea,” Leigh MP James Grundy said. “The people in Lowton East saw through this though and voted in Edward Houlton once again.
“I believe that next year we can regroup and we plan to make further progress in Leigh and in Wigan. Obviously I am disappointed to see that we lost Orrell and Michael Winstanley, but he will be back next year to take back his seat.”
Mr Grundy also stated his disappointment in the low turnout with only Astley Mosley Common and Lowton East getting above a 35 per cent turnout in Leigh.
