Labour: Baroness Chakrabarti discusses Hartlepool candidate

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The Labour Party risks “alienating the rest of the country” if it focuses too much on winning the Hartlepool by-election, Express.co.uk was told. The town has become one of the most hotly anticipated local ballots in this May’s election. Labour’s Mike Hill resigned from the seat earlier this year and Sir Keir picked local GP Paul Williams to replace him.

An ardent Remainer who championed a People’s Vote after Brexit, Mr Williams is hoping to win over a seat that voted 70 percent to leave the EU.

The Labour leader is increasingly focused on Hartlepool, having visited the port town twice in the past month.

According to The Times, activists have been sent in from the wider region, while the party has diverted campaigning resources from neighbouring councils.

Many claim that winning Hartlepool is vital if Labour hopes to restore its fallen Red Wall.

Yet, others like Professor Richard Wyn Jones, argue that Sir Keir risks losing votes from elsewhere if he prioritises Hartlepool and other Red Wall seats.

The political scientist said Welsh, Scottish and voters across England will register that the party seems interested only in securing the North of England.

He told Express.co.uk: “The danger for Labour is that if they try and attack in one direction in order to win back the North of England, the English identifying North of England, they will alienate their welsh identifying voters in Wales, or that they will further alienate the Scottish identifying voters that they need to win back in Scotland.

“Labour have a real issue in understanding the nature of the problem they face.

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“Even if they could work it out, I think objectively they have a really difficult problem in working out what to do about it because of the nature of that party’s support, historically speaking.”

The first and only major election poll carried out by Survation earlier this month found the Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer to be ahead of Labour by seven points.

The Tories have never won in Hartlepool.

Many believe this could be the first time the town turns blue.

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Some seats are almost guaranteed to remain in Labour’s hands.

London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is widely expected to sweep the capital’s vote, such is the strength of Labour in the city.

Yet many believe the continued and growing success of the party in cities like London could spell-out disaster for it in the country at large.

This might explain why Sir Keir is so desperate to funnel all resources into Hartlepool.

Paul Embery, a trade unionist and Labour member, told Express.co.uk that the problem with Labour’s success in London is that the city doesn’t represent the UK.

He said: “London is very liberal, London is very cosmopolitan, but that’s not particularly what provincial and post-industrial Britain is like.

“Part of the problem is that Sadiq Khan will win comfortably in London, and whilst many in Labour will be pleased about that, the reality is that the more Labour is sweeping up the votes in London, the less it’s sweeping up the votes in red wall constituencies.

“I think there’s a link between how popular Labour is in London and how unpopular it is in provincial and post-industrial small town Britain.”

In Hartlepool, Labour has a narrow majority of 3,595.

Ray Martin-Wells, the president of the local Tory association told The Times: “For the first time in my life, yes, I genuinely do think we could win.”

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