Written by A guest post from the North Shropshire Campaign Team
Labour’s Ben Wood, born, educated and living locally, is fighting a vigorous campaign, frequently visiting the many market towns and villages in the third largest seat in England, supported by many front bench MPs and teams of volunteer workers from neighbouring CLPs as well as our own members. Ben’s efforts on behalf of residents in eastern parts of the seat, affected by planned HS2 lorry traffic, in Labour’s successful passing of the Roseer Amendment on consultation through the Lords and then Commons, are well known locally.
The last time there was a new Tory candidate, Labour’s Ian Lucas, afterwards for many years the MP for nearby Wrexham, was only 4% behind with over 18,000 votes. In that and the subsequent elections in the 2000s Labour’s average vote has been over 14,000, including over 17,000 and 31% in 2017. No other opposition party has reached five figures more than twice, so that for nearly 25 years we have been the only Party working to win the seat from the disgraced Patterson. The Greens haven’t even ever held their deposit.
We are hugely encouraged by our reception on the streets and doorsteps and the level of support we have received. Particularly noteworthy has been the support we have received from other country CLPs with North in their name – at least five so far!
As we enter the last 10 days of this campaign, we are all encouraged by the response we are getting against a Birmingham based Tory candidate.
If you can help, on the ground, on the phone or on social media please do drop us a line at
https://www.facebook.com/Ben-Wood-for-North-Shropshire-104479002060279/
@btwodo – https://twitter.com/btwodo – hashtag #Ben4NorthShropshire
And http://northshropshirelabour.org/ https://twitter.com/NShropshire_CLP