A better Labour candidate in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election

[CTTeller]

We all remember the omnishambles of the 2021 Hartlepool by-election. I don't think I remember any candidates being discussed other than Paul Williams, but is there any way to get a better candidate in Hartlepool, and who would have been a better candidate? I don't know how possible it would be to get Labour to hold but I feel as if it would be a steep hill to climb, but perhaps it would be possible to make the Conservative gain a tad less extensive.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Williams was appointed from on-high, so the first thing you need for a better candidate is them to not do that and be less (so the local party told the Guardian) arrogantly complacent & imposing ideas. You definitely need a local lad/lass voted locally, a lot of chatter from voters was about Hartlepool losing and Labour not thinking much of them, you had defectors from Labour to Sam Lee as an alternative leftie candidate (and she won 10% of the vote). I don't think you're going to find a candidate the Tories can't go "THEY'RE A REMAINER" about - lots of Labour were Remainers and it was the party policy so even the quiet Leavers have "ah but--" on them. Williams is likely the only candidate you can pin "was in a group that backed removing critical care from our hospital" about though.

 

[CTTeller]

Williams was appointed from on-high, so the first thing you need for a better candidate is them to not do that and be less (so the local party told the Guardian) arrogantly complacent & imposing ideas. You definitely need a local lad/lass voted locally, a lot of chatter from voters was about Hartlepool losing and Labour not thinking much of them, you had defectors from Labour to Sam Lee as an alternative leftie candidate (and she won 10% of the vote). I don't think you're going to find a candidate the Tories can't go "THEY'RE A REMAINER" about - lots of Labour were Remainers and it was the party policy so even the quiet Leavers have "ah but--" on them. Williams is likely the only candidate you can pin "was in a group that backed removing critical care from our hospital" about though.

I'm writing what's basically turned into an ASB timeline about someone coming into the Labour leadership that is really against Labour high-ups forcing these sorts of situations. Might it be possible with a different looking Labour that Sam Lee herself could have become the candidate?

 

[Charles EP M.]

Might it be possible with a different looking Labour that Sam Lee herself could have become the candidate?

She wasn't a party member, so she'd need a butterfly that gets her to join under Corbyn; a big part of her success is baked into her being an independent candidate though, and a normal local ("mum and businesswoman") whereas your Heritages and your NIPs aren't.

Also, I'd totally forgotten until the internet reminded me that the by-election happened because Mike Hill was done for sexual harassment - and he'd had the whip suspended and restored in 2019. That's another bit of hell for whoever the next candidate is. Better not appoint anyone who was close to Hill!

 

[CTTeller]

She wasn't a party member, so she'd need a butterfly that gets her to join under Corbyn; a big part of her success is baked into her being an independent candidate though, and a normal local ("mum and businesswoman") whereas your Heritages and your NIPs aren't.

Also, I'd totally forgotten until the internet reminded me that the by-election happened because Mike Hill was done for sexual harassment - and he'd had the whip suspended and restored in 2019. That's another bit of hell for whoever the next candidate is. Better not appoint anyone who was close to Hill!

As I understand it none of the Hartlepool candidates were ever seriously considered either as if I remember right the Labour grouping was in absolute hellfire, which complicates things further...

 

[Oppo]

Weren’t there rumors of Laura Pidcock wanting to stand?

 

[Tamar]

I'm writing what's basically turned into an ASB timeline about someone coming into the Labour leadership that is really against Labour high-ups forcing these sorts of situations. Might it be possible with a different looking Labour that Sam Lee herself could have become the candidate?

She wasn't a party member, so she'd need a butterfly that gets her to join under Corbyn; a big part of her success is baked into her being an independent candidate though, and a normal local ("mum and businesswoman") whereas your Heritages and your NIPs aren't.

No idea how Lee feels, but an interesting tidbit I was told around the time of the by-election by someone who knows the whole North East Labour milieu well is that Hartlepool CLP is and always has been infamous for being a lot more male-dominated than any other CLP in the region.

 

[Elektronaut]

As noted, the local party has basically self-destructed and it would have been a liability to have anyone actually from the town.

What Labour needed was a Brexit-pragmatic candidate with a bit of flair and political nous, (Not a drone or a timeserver, or, for that matter, a failed MP who was mates with someone in the Labour leadership, a proper by-election candidate for a tough by-election) not from Hartlepool, but from somewhere on Teesside - but I'm not sure whether such a candidate actually existed. The Hartlepool CLP has imploded but Labour as a whole across Teesside has had a bit of a mare of late.

If the by-election had not been taking place literally the same time as the re-election parade of Houchen, then that would have probably helped matters. The vast majority of people in Hartlepool (It ended up being above 70%) were going to vote Conservative in one election that day come what may with regard to the by-election.

But Labour was really very lucky to have held Hartlepool in 2019, and it wouldn't have done so had it not been the number one Faragist target in the country, which produced a 25% Farage vote and a Labour hold on less than 40% of the vote. And given the by-election took place in the long honeymoon of the government, it was always going to be favoured for the Conservatives.

 

[iainbhx]

As I understand it none of the Hartlepool candidates were ever seriously considered either as if I remember right the Labour grouping was in absolute hellfire, which complicates things further...

The Hartlepool Labour Group has been a nest of familial vipers for about a decade. It may have cleansed itself now. May.

There was no way that Labour were going to hold this unless all the cards fell right. I.E. Not Tice for REF-UK.

 

[Tamar]

 

[Charles EP M.]

For Want Of A Form, coming from Sea Lion Press in 2023