Labour Celebrate Ealing Victory

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And set sights on next year's general election

The Labour group on Ealing Council is celebrating its victory at the local elections and hoping it will be reflected in next year's general election.

Labour retained all nine of its previously held Acton seats but it also gained a significant win in central Ealing’s Walpole ward taking all three seats from the Conservatives.

Dr Gareth Shaw, Binda Rai and Paul Conlan overturned a 700-vote Tory majority in Walpole contributing to Labour’s 53 seat landslide victory across the Borough.

Council leader Julian Bell said:

'' We are delighted and humbled by this result. Local people have put their trust in Labour with the biggest Labour victory the borough has ever seen.

''This result is a clear message to the Tory-led Government that they are fed up with Tory cuts and closures. Local people have said that they are completely against the closure of local Hospitals and the slashing of the council's budget. They have put their trust in a Labour council that has frozen council tax whilst protecting front line services.

''These results also show that Steve Pound and Virendra Sharma are on course to be re-elected next year and Dr Rupa Huq will be joining them as the new MP for Ealing Central and Acton. I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of local residents as leader of the council."

Labour say the vote across Ealing Central and Acton bodes well for their parliamentary candidate, Dr Rupa Huq, as Labour polled a higher number of votes than the Conservatives across the whole constituency.

Dr Rupa Huq welcomed the constituency’s twelve winning councillors to their first meeting at Ealing Town Hall on Tuesday evening and said:

“It is an absolute pleasure to welcome twelve Labour councillors from Ealing Central and Acton to Ealing Town Hall. This result has shown that we are not just the Party of Acton, but a party that reaches out to the whole constituency, east to west and north to south.

The Tory MP here should be very worried. What Labour have done in these elections is park Labour tanks on a Tory lawn and we don’t intend on going anywhere soon. We plan to fight for every vote across every ward.

The issues facing residents of Ealing and Acton such as the cost-of-living crisis, soaring energy bills and childcare costs have answers only Labour are willing and able to provide – and that’s exactly what we’ll be explaining on the doorstep over the next year.”

 

29th May 2014