Comments on: Birmingham Perry Barr

By: Joe James B

Joe James B — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:19:55 +0000

Perry Barr doesn’t seem to have much of a centre to it.

By: John Chanin

John Chanin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:17:22 +0000

Sorry for the very belated response, but the reason is that the Perry Barr CLP was suspended (an issue about improvement grants which I really don’t want to go into), whereas the Erdington CLP wasn’t.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:51:49 +0000

Refering back to the previous post, I wasn’t awear of the situation that existed regarding Roy Hattersley’s retirement.

I can understand the Labour Party not wanting Clare Short to lose her Ladywood seat, but was there any possibility of them trying to get Jeff Rooker to stand down in 1997 so that Clare Shor t could contest Perry Barr and Roger Godsiff could contest Ladywood?

Also, if it was considered so unaceptable for a Muslim to contest Perry Barr in 2001, wouldn’t it have made more sense for Khalid Mahmood to have contested Erdington which also had a vacancy in 2001. Erdington is more WWC than Perry Barr and race relations there are less of an issue.

By: Andy JS

Andy JS — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:05:42 +0000

I hadn’t realised the Tories managed to hold this seat in 1966. The seat at that time comprised Handsworth, Lozells and Sandwell wards. They didn’t receive much of a positive swing in 1970 – about 1%. Sydney Chapman won that year, taking over from Edward Boyle.

By: Barnaby JL Marder

Barnaby JL Marder — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:53:48 +0000

Not disputing that. Just pointing out that there was at least a precedent to his standing in Birmingham.

By: John Chanin

John Chanin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 22:32:35 +0000

Barnaby is correct but he was a GMBU hack from Lewisham in London

By: Barnaby JL Marder

Barnaby JL Marder — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 22:17:39 +0000

That is all pretty much true I think. I should point out that Roger Godsiff although not originally from Brum had previously stood in Yardley, in 1983 I think, before being elected to Parliament.

By: John Chanin

John Chanin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:01:41 +0000

Pete Whiehead is correct as usual.

There is a history which depressed Khalid Mahmood’s vote in 2001. Roy Hattersley was the MP for Sparkbrook until 1997. This was a majority Moslem seat and Roy made no secret of his expectation that a Moslem would replace him. However the redistribution of 1997 meant that 2 wards of Ladywood were place with 2 wards of Small Heath in the new Ladywood. Small Heath was a GMBU rotten borough. The selection in the new Ladywood would have been won by Godsiff, which would have been acutely embarrassing for Labour since Clare Short was a shadow cabinet member. A deal was therefore done whereby Godsiff was given Sparkbrook. In exchange Labour promised that the next vacancy in Birmingham would be given to a Moslem member. The local constituency parties were all suspended to enable this to happen. This provoked an exodus from the Labour party by Moslem members who formed the Peoples Justice Party who held the balance of power on Birmingham Council in 2003.

Labour fulfilled their promise in 2001 when Jeff Rooker stood down at the last moment which enabled Khalid Mahmood to be appointed as the candidate for Perry Barr, without any reference to members. This also led to protests because Perry Barr’s sizable BAME population was African/Caribbean or Sikh, not Moslem. There was therefore one of the largest swings in the country against Labour in Perry Barr in 2001

Khalid Mahmood has subsequently proved himself to be a good competent local MP, who took a prominent role in the aftermath of the race riots in Lozells in 2004.

Meanwhile the unions remain strong in Birmingham Labour politics, and appointed Jack Dromey in Erdington who has no more connection with Birmingham than Roger Godsiff.

It is a great pity that Lynne Jones retired at the last election.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:48:31 +0000

The Conservatives famously were ahead in Perry Barr in 1982 before Miguel’s disasterous defeat a year later.

They must have been well ahead in this version of Perry Barr.

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:31:18 +0000

This seat is roughly two thirds of the 1979 Handsworth (1979 Lab majority 3,209) and two thirds of the 1979 Perry Barr (1979 Lab majority 491). The areas removed were the most Labour parts of each seat – Aston from Handsworth and Kingstanding from Perry Barr. Without a doubt the Conservatives would have been ahead in the area included from the old Perry Barr and not that far behind in the area from Handsworth. Possible this would have been a Tory seat then.