At this year's postponed local elections, ten Salford councillors are 'retiring', including senior councillor and planning head, Derek Antrobus and senior Conservative councillor Jillian Collinson.
Nine of the ten councillors are from the Labour Party - Councillor Derek Antrobus, Councillor Richard Critchley, Councillor Laura Edwards, Councillor Stephen Hesling, Councillor David Jolley, Councillor Charlie McIntyre, Councillor Brendan Ryan, Councillor Michael Wheeler and Councillor Ronald Wilson. Jillian Collinson is the one Conservative member retiring.
Behind the 'retirement' cavalcade however, the Salford Star understands that there are deep local Labour Party issues and splits which date back a year ago to when the election was supposed to held in 2020.
Apparently, the Party could only find ten new panellists to add to the sitting councillors who were to stand again in their seats..."A couple of sitting councillors were effectively driven out by not being put back on the panel for falling foul of the Momentum in-crowd and Rebecca Long Bailey backers", a source told the Star.
At the time, the Star emailed a few of the retiring councillors asking what the reason was for their withdrawal from the Council...
Councillor Richard Critchley was the only one to respond, stating "The plan was to spend more time with the family. My nan is quite frail, she's 97, so needs a lot more support..."
Last week, however, the Labour Party supporting website skwawkbox.org ran an exclusive article on the 'panellists links to MPs and north west fixers' in which it named 'fixers' "that barred Anna Rothery from the selection process to decide who will stand for Labour in May's Liverpool mayoral contest".
Within the article, references were made to Alex Halligan, who formerly worked in Rebecca Long-Bailey's office and now works for Stockport MP, Nav Mishra, and Salford Pendlebury Councillor, Damien Bailey, who also works for Liverpool Wavertree MP, Paula Barker, "whose selection he helped secure"...
"Alex Halligan and Damian Bailey are well known in Labour and union circles, especially but not exclusively in the north-west of England" the article stated "They have been accused of a 'no holds barred' approach to getting their preferred candidates selected for parliamentary and other seats and to eliminating rivals."
The Labour Party nationally responded by accusing skwawkbox of "gratuitous innuendos and assertions about various Party members, as well two Labour MPs"...without providing evidence to the contrary.
Meanwhile, back in Salford, in Irlam and Cadishead, where one Labour seat was lost to an Independent last time, John Walsh has been given a safer seat in Ordsall
Jake Rowland, who was originally set be a paper candidate for Kersal, is now standing in the Quays seat alongside Phil Tresadern and Ann Marie Humphreys, which has upset some councillors in Walkden South, and Cadishead and Irlam wanting a safer seat.
Jake Rowland has also already upset some locals on the Salford Quays Community Forum, as he was reprimanded for comments made...
"If you do want to engage with the group, please remember that you are dealing with your potential voters" wrote an admin of the group "...I found your outburst incredibly immature and unprofessional this evening. If that is how this campaign is going to go, all candidates will be removed from the group entirely..."
It also looks like the Labour Party has given up on Kersal, Boothstown and Worsley and Westwood Park, and will be fielding only paper candidates...
* This article has been slightly altered - see the comment below...
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