"I was greeted by residents armed with frying pans when running to be on Sheffield City Council"
The teenage Sheffielder who defeated Labour in the recent Sheffield City Council by-election has told how residents opened their doors with frying pans during the campaign.
Willis Marshall won the Woodhouse by-election in November by just 10 votes, ahead of Reform UK’s Andy Hizzard. The result was historic for the Liberal Democrats, as Sheffield Labour have represented the area for decades.
In his first sit-down interview since his election, Marshall told The Sheffield Scoop Podcast: “I was quite keen to put my name forward from the start... but I was quite concerned because this area has been Labour since 1968.
“I was thinking Reform are probably going to be the main contenders here and so I was quite concerned about running a campaign, attracting some of the disaffected Labour vote and splitting the vote.
“But within the first week of me going out and canvassing it was clear that Labour had lost it. The first person I spoke to was a gentleman who opened his door and told me ‘I’m a trade unionist, I was at the miners strikes during the Thatcher years. I’ve always voted for Labour my entire life, I was a member until a couple of years ago when Corbyn left and I’m voting for you’.
“Throughout the rest of the campaign it was clear to me that Labour was not going to win it. If I hadn’t stood, or if the Lib Dems hadn’t run, it would have been Reform that won it.
“At least half-a-dozen people opened their doors with frying pans and told me that if I was the Labour guy they’d chase me down the garden with it.”
The by-election result confirmed a dramatic defeat for Sheffield Labour as they lost to the Lib Dems by nearly 400 votes.
Deputy leader of Sheffield Labour, Ben Miskell, told The Star it had been a difficult period for the government in Westminster, linking the local party’s poor election performance to the position of Keir Starmer’s adminisitration nationally.
19-year-old Marshall said he was determined to crack on and work for the local community, adding he wouldn’t be doing any pandering to hard-right narratives, despite Reform’s popularity in his new ward.
Since his election, Coun Marshall has been placed on the communities, parks and leisure policy committee, which is chaired by fellow Sheffield South East Liberal Democrat Kurtis Crossland.
You can listen the full Sheffield Scoop interview with Coun Marshall whereever you listen to podcasts.