Tajammul Gurmani:
The opposition parties have failed to reach a seat adjustment in the local elections of Manchester City Council (MCC) against the ruling Labour Party. The Green Party, Workers Party, and Yours Party earlier joined hands last month and announced support for Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer, who won the parliamentary by-election by a huge margin against Labour and Reform UK. After dropping support for the Green Party, the Workers Party has announced its candidates in nine wards for the local elections to be held on May 7.
According to details, all three opposition parties could not successfully make a seat adjustment and have announced separate candidates in Manchester. After this new development and division among their ranks, they will face heavyweight Labour and Reform Party candidates and may not be able to secure their seats.
Workers Party leader Cllr Shahbaz Sarwar, talking to The London Post, said they had tried to collaborate with the Green Party, but unfortunately, at some points, they were let us down. He said that during the last parliamentary by-election, when the Green Party came to Manchester, we helped them win the seat, and the aim was that in the local elections, the Greens would support us as well. He added that it was not a formal seat adjustment but an opportunity where each party would support the other’s strong candidates; however, this did not happen. He further said that the Green Party gained Muslim votes on the basis of Gaza and calls for no war in the Middle East, but after winning the seat, Green Party leader Zeck Polanski mentioned in his speech that the victory was based on local issues. He said that for the local elections, Yours Party still has arrangements with the Workers Party and wants to continue cooperation, but the Greens have not honoured the first agreement. He added that they have a verbal agreement with Yours Party, and both sides may support each other’s candidates. “In Manchester, we are looking at nine candidates standing in wards including Longsight, Levenshulme, Burnage, Rusholme, and Fallowfield. We will contest this election against Labour and the Green Party. We have issued the tickets and will launch the election campaign this week,” he added.
