Friday, May 23, 2014

Re-elected as Labour Councillor for West Ham

I was privileged to be re-elected as a Councillor for West Ham ward in Newham, London today, together with Labour colleagues Freda Bourne and John Whitworth. It has been an exhausting past few days, weeks and months. Once I recover I will post in more details about polling day and the count.

Labour won all 60 Council seats in Newham by large margins and Sir Robin Wales was re-elected as Executive Mayor with 61% of the vote.

I have said it before and will say it again, it is a humbling experience to be shown so much trust and support.  Many thanks to all those who voted for us and to those who helped out campaigning in the ward (big thanks to my UNISON comrade, Montrose Matty, for sorting out over enthusiastic Tories outside West Ham polling stations)

West Ham - results
Election Candidate Party Votes %
Freda Ann Bourne Labour 2046 24% Elected
John Whitworth Labour 1939 22% Elected
John Gray Labour 1913 22% Elected
Farhana Firdous Conservative 617 7% Not elected
Mary Antwi Conservative 525 6% Not elected
Matej Gasparic Conservative 456 5% Not elected
Michael Edward Armstrong UK Independence Party (UKIP) 381 4% Not elected
Edgar Aguinaldo Garen Liberal Democrat 259 3% Not elected
Sheila Iris Brown Christian Peoples Alliance 231 3% Not elected
Myrtle Verona Laing Christian Peoples Alliance 151 2% Not elected
Joe Mettle Christian Peoples Alliance 136 2% Not elected

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations ‘comrade’ but I’ll be sticking around exposing you for being a Tory in disguise.

John Gray said...

Many thanks "comrade"

More sour grapes from the Lost Deposit Brigade I am afraid.

Oh well, you must do your best but no one pays much attention to the proponents of LaLa-ism

Love & kisses as always :)

Bob said...

John, my congratulations to you and your fellow councillors. Whilst I disagree with many of the ideas and policies of Labour in Newham, the clean sweep on a high turnout shows that the people of Newham are convinced otherwise.

My only plea would be that you don't just dismiss alternative views without thought and debate. It is far to easy just to keep to the party line and I hope that there is a great deal more openness about policy in the next four years.

Before you dismiss my congratulations as being damned by faint praise, I really do mean them. It's a fantastic result.

John Gray said...

Thank you Bob for your congratulations and your point is taken.

Alan Ji said...

Congratulations John.
I think the calculation of % that you have copied in misleading. For parties fielding 3 candidates they should be about 4 times a much. Numbercrunching later.
Also important in Newham was the turnout; not only higher than Haringey and Redbridge, but significantly higher than 2006.

John Gray said...

thanks Alan. The Newham website says total Labour Cllr vote was 66%. I worked out in West Ham we were 68%?

Anon2 said...

You don't say anything about the rise of UKIP in Labour heartlands.

Labour encouraged immigration for votes, but it has backfired, now you have to contend with a new political party.

Labour created a fake boom based on housing and banking. Put the country in a financial mess.

Milliband saying there is a 'cost of living' crisis, is very negative. It reminds people Labour is to blame. He does not have a message of hope. Tony Blair sounded much better on radio.

Labour did not deal the absurdity of benefit claimants, receiving £100,000 to live million pound homes. Instead it left it to the Torys to clean up the mess. If Labour had dealt with the problem, it could have handled benefit cuts in a more compassionate way rather then leaving it to the Torys.

Labour did not deal with immigration in a sensible way, now it will be up to UKIP with their Gestapo fan club.

If the UK gets in power and it gets out of Europe, it will crash the UK economy.

Once, UKIP get a taste of power, they are unlikely to shut down, if even if, the UK pulls out of Europe, they will continue down the extremist agenda.

John Gray said...

Hi anon 2

Well, UKIP were not a major issue in my ward nor in London. Even the East European Tory beat them. I think that UKIP will eventually implode like the BNP.

Only a completely paranoid delusionist would think that Labour "encouraged" immigration to get votes. The unrestricted entry following new countries joining the EU was a cock-up not a plot.

It was criminal recklessness and fraud by Bankers and financiers that caused this international recession not Labour.

If people feel richer Tories will win and if they don't - Labour will. It is as simple as that.

The Labour government was dealing with Housing benefit abuses. It should have moved quicker.