Labour has done good things but the messaging has failed, says new local leader

The new Labour group leader on Lancashire County Council says the party needs to rethink how it gets its message across to residents after it was decimated at the local elections.

Mark Clifford has taken the helm of what is now a rump of just five red-rosetted members of the authority.

The party has spent the past eight years as the official opposition to what was a Tory-controlled County Hall during that period – until Reform UK swept to power at last week’s poll.

Labour – previously a 32-strong group after the 2021 elections – is now only the joint second-largest opposition party on the county council, together with the Liberal Democrats.

County Cllr Clifford – who has represented the Clayton with Whittle division for the past four years and also sits on Chorley Council – said Labour had a strong local manifesto going into the elections, with commitments including increased pothole funding and reducing inequalities.

However, he acknowledged that the party’s plans for the county had been “drowned out” by some aspects of national government policy.

“We will be looking at where our messaging failed and what we can do to get our positive messages out there.

“Since the Labour government took power 10 months ago, we have done a lot of good things – but those good things do not seem to have been noticed by the public.

“For instance, we have delivered an extra two million NHS appointments, ended the junior doctors strike, brought in breakfast clubs at primary schools and scrapped single-word Ofsted grades.

“But that’s been drowned out by any other messaging – and that’s why we’ve lost a lot of good, experienced councillors. And it’s been over decisions that aren’t made at a local level.

“I’m proud and honoured to be the Labour group leader in Lancashire – I just wish the circumstances were much different,” added County Cllr Clifford, who was most recently Lancashire Labour’s shadow cabinet member for environment and climate change.

His predecessor as county Labour leader, Matthew Tomlinson, said after he was amongst those to lose his seat on the county council, that the government had not delivered the change it had promised – and had enacted policies that did not feel like “Labour things” to do.

He specifically highlighted the level at which means testing had been introduced for winter fuel allowance payments, as well as cuts to disability benefits.

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