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Labour pains putting city MPs under threat
LABOUR would face humiliation and the defeat of all but two of its Sheffield MPs if the results of last week's poll are repeated in a general election.
The party is not in control of Sheffield Council for only the third time since World War Two after losing five seats and taking 37.9 per cent of the total vote - while the victorious Lib Dems secured 45.4 per cent.
From the average share of votes cast in the wards making up each of the city's parliamentary constituencies, The Star can reveal further misery for Labour, which once counted Sheffield as one of its heartlands:
- Heeley MP and junior Foreign Office minister Meg Munn would lose an 11,000 majority and crash to a narrow defeat by the Lib Dems.
- Hillsborough MP Angela Smith, who is standing in the new Penistone and Stocksbridge seat, would come third, with the Lib Dems winning the seat and the Tories, who see the constituency as a potential target, second.
- Labour's comfortable 7,000 majority in Sheffield Central would be wiped out and the party would only just beat the Lib Dems. Lib Dems could take seat by securing a handful of extra votes.
- Only Brightside MP David Blunkett and Clive Betts, who represents Attercliffe, would be safe - but with reduced majorities.
- Conservatives would fail to make any inroads into Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's hold on Hallam.
But Sheffield Labour chairman Paul Blomfield, candidate to replace retiring MP Richard Caborn in Central, today said scale of the defeat would be "unthinkable".
"Voters have used the local elections to send a message that Labour clearly has to learn," he said.
But Mr Blomfield added: "It would probably be very different in a general election where people are choosing between a Labour and Conservative Government.
"People in Sheffield will contrast the last 10 years of Labour with the previous 18 years of stagnation and unemployment in the city under the Tories."
Mr Blomfield said in the 1990s Hillsborough remained a solid Labour constituency despite there being times when the party did not even have a single council seat in the ward. Lib Dem deputy group leader Coun David Baker said: "The statistics are encouraging but it's something I would not put a lot of money on.
"We know general elections do not follow the same trend as local elections."
The Star calculated what share of the vote parties would receive in a general election by calculating the percentage of votes cast in each ward last week, then working out average percentages for all wards in each constituency.
In total, 116,799 votes were cast in local elections in Sheffield. Lib Dems received 53,002, or 45.4 per cent, Labour took 44,308, or 37.9pc, while the Tories were third with 22,978, or 19.7pc, and the Greens had 12,446 votes, or 10.65pc of the vote.
If the 30 seats up for grabs had been shared proportionally, Conservatives, who now have no councillors, would have taken six seats. The Greens would have taken three seats instead of one.
Turnout in Sheffield averaged 36.7pc, half the level expected at a general election.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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