Bigbopper wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:23 pm
The thing about Burnley MPs is that none of them were very good and never reached any real position of power. Tony B Liar seems to have done ok from it.
Peter Pike was decent enough back in the day, and he at least had links in the community, and probably still does even now, that Usher woman was a blatant carpetbagger, and it was no surprise that her tenure led to Labour losing the seat for the 1st time since the 1930's, Birtwistle was never going to survive after voting for many of the austerity measures supported by the coalition, and Julie Cooper was a staunch remainer in a heavily brexit voting area, so she was always going to struggle to hold on whatever the national picture.
If Labour have serious ambitions about forming a government in 2024 then they simply have to regain seats like Burnley, Higginbotham's majority is slim, and I doubt either the BP or UKIP will run a candidate next time, so there's a sizeable % up for grabs for either main party if they can grasp the nettle. I'd make Labour slight favourites to retake Burnley, but a lot depends on their candidate selection, surely they've learned their lesson after the Usher fiasco, and they'll select somebody local, I have no knowledge if Cooper will throw her hat into the ring again, and even if she does I'd say Labour are better off looking for a fresh face, surely they must have someone out of their 20+ councillors that is capable of performing the role of a constituency MP. if they haven't then the outlook is bleak for them.
I do think Anthony Higginbotham has been damaged by his decision to vote with the government on this issue, and if the economy is the pivotal theme of the next election, which many commentators believe will be the case, then he needs to hope that our post-covid landscape is showing improvement by then, if it isn't I can see the seat changing hands once again, and yet another Burnley MP only serving one term.