Labour looking to turn Staffordshire red in General Election
Labour is looking to turn Staffordshire red next month as its team of candidates is finalised for the General Election.
The party will be contesting seats all across the region, including Cannock Chase, Lichfield, South Staffordshire, Stafford and Stone.
It will be a difficult task for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour after the disaster of the local elections in the county coupled with the fact the Conservatives hold all the above seats. Some are major Tory majorities and even making inroads will be difficult.
Labour only holds 10 seats on Staffordshire County Council, having lost 14 from its 2013 result, with the Conservatives now boasting 51 of the 62 seats. One seat is independent.
In Cannock Chase 40-year-old 7/7 terror attack hero Paul Dadge will be coming up against Conservative Amanda Milling. She was elected in 2015 and has a majority of nearly 5,000 and the seat was previously Labour held up until 2010.
Mr Dadge said: “I am confident. There are things in our manifesto out today which will show the Tories up for who they really are and will give me a great chance in Cannock Chase.”
Mr Dadge featured in one of the most iconic images of the London bombings of July 7, 2005, when he was pictured guiding Davinia Douglass away from a tube station as she held a surgical mask to her burned face.
The outcry over Stafford’s County Hospital, which has lost its children’s A&E, is on of the key campaign issues. Conservative candidate Jeremy Lefroy currently holds a majority of around 10,000.
The man going up against him is David Williams, who works as a director at YMCA North Staffordshire.
Government Chief Whip Gavin Williamson currently has a majority of more than 20,000 in South Staffordshire and the seat has been Conservative held since 1983.
Adam Freeman, 24, will be the Labour candidate taking him on. He came second in Perton for Labour in the local elections this month for the first time in over a decade.
Both Stone and Lichfield are also big Tory majority seats.
Prominent Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash holds the Stone seat with a majority of more than 16,000 and has been the town’s MP since 1997. Michael Fabricant too has been Lichfield’s MP since 1997 and boasts a majority of more than 18,000.
Sam Hale, Labour’s candidate for Stone in 2015, will be standing again while Chris Worsey, who stood against Michael Fabricant two years ago, will be contesting the Lichfield seat. Mr Worsey is also a Sandwell Council councillor.
John Fisher, a Labour councillor in Redditch,, for Labour, stands against Tory Wendy Morton in the Aldridge-Brownhills seat for the second time. He lost by nearly 12,000 votes in 2015.
