Manchester Local Elections: Chorlton Ward

May 1st was a bad day for the Labour Party up and down this country but despite all the doom and gloom in the media in Manchester we achieved some very good results, bucking the national trends and securing some well-fought victories that bode very well for Labour in Manchester.

This was achieved by hard and intelligent campaigning against tough opposition and is a lesson to other Labour Groups across the country that we can win if we work hard and we work well. We need to run targeted campaigns on the issues people care about and we need to talk to as many people as we possibly can. Never can we take people's votes as a given; we need to fight for every single one, and in Manchester we did just that and in Manchester we achieved.

Manchester Labour Students worked tirelessly in the run up to the local elections I personally worked every single day in April to make sure that the Liberal Democrats did not make any gains in Manchester.

Manchester Labour Students have been putting a lot of focus into Chorlton Ward with between 5 and 10 activists out on a regular basis in the area. Chorlton was and remains really vital for the chances of Labour's Parliamentary Candidate, Lucy Powell, in gaining Withington for the Party from Lib Dem MP John Leech. At the last local elections in 2007 the Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Ankers beat off the sitting Labour councillor with a majority of 42.

Both parties realised the stakes involved in this election and both parties put a huge amount of effort into Chorlton with the Liberal Democrats putting out 3 leaflets a week at times and John Leech MP sending personalised hand written letters saying his credibility was on the line. Labour brought in activists from across the city and worked tirelessly to ensure that a councillor that believes in our values of social justice, equality and opportunity was elected.

Well John Leech's candidate lost. She lost by 250. Hardworking incumbent Labour Councillor Sheila Newman saw off the Lib Dem challenger Lianne Williams, who works in John Leech's office and doesn't even live in the ward, by a sizeable majority.

The Liberal Democrats attacked everything. They said Labour would close the post offices. When we aren't. They said that Sheila voted in favour of a planning application. When she didn't. She even said Sheila personally was going to close a post office. When she won't. The Liberal Democrats attacked everything, but didn't propose anything. It was the same old politics of fear from Mr Leech.

The Liberal Democrats at times even resorted to claiming Labour achievements as their own and throwing absurd attacks at Sheila. Mr Leech didn't just throw the kitchen sink at us, he ripped out his entire office and then his house and threw it at us in an unrelenting campaign.

Yet Mr Leech still lost. And why did he lose? Because Labour's intelligent campaign really chimed with local people and local people really responded to it by resoundingly voting Labour. Mr Leech's politics of fear didn't work here and I will ensure it doesn't work anywhere else.

Lucy Powell has got a very good chance of winning the seat in next general election in Withington for Labour and I think John Leech should be scared. Very scared.