Wyre Forest
2010 Results:
Conservative: 18793 (36.92%)
Labour: 7298 (14.34%)
Liberal Democrat: 6040 (11.87%)
BNP: 1120 (2.2%)
UKIP: 1498 (2.94%)
Others: 16150 (31.73%)
Majority: 2643 (22.58%)
Notional 2005 Results:
KHHC: 18739 (38.9%)
Conservative: 14165 (29.4%)
Labour: 10939 (22.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 178 (0.4%)
Other: 4167 (11.2%)
Majority: 4574 (9.5%)
Actual 2005 result
KHHC: 18739 (39.9%)
Conservative: 13489 (28.7%)
Labour: 10716 (22.8%)
Liberal: 2666 (5.7%)
UKIP: 1074 (2.3%)
Loony: 303 (0.6%)
Majority: 5250 (11.2%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 9350 (19.1%)
Labour: 10857 (22.1%)
UKIP: 368 (0.8%)
KHHC: 28487 (58.1%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 19897 (36.1%)
Labour: 26843 (48.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 4377 (8%)
Referendum: 1956 (3.6%)
Other: 1982 (3.6%)
Majority: 6946 (12.6%)
Boundary changes: Wyre Forest becomes entirely coterminous with Wyre Forest district council. This involves gaining the rural Rock ward and a small part of Bewdley and Arley ward from
Profile: Wyre Forest mainly consists of the industrial town of Kidderminister, a centre for the carpet industry, but also includes Stourport and Bewdley and outlying villages.
Politically the seat is unusual. It would probably be a Conservative/Labour marginal but in 2001 it was won by an Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern candidate, Dr Richard Taylor, on the back of a campaign against the closure of the casualty unit at Kidderminister hospital. Taylor managed to retain the seat at the 2005 election, though Health Concern`s representation on the local council has fallen from it`s pre-2004 heights. In both general elections the Liberal Democrats did not put up a candidate and supported Dr Taylor. Prior to the last election Simon Hughes indicated that this deal was for that election only and that there will be a Liberal democrat candidate in Wyre Forest at the next election.
Wyre Forest is also one of the few areas (see also Liverpool West Derby and Exeter) where the continuing Liberal party retain significant strength. Prior to the 2001 election the Liberals provided the council leader as part of a “rainbow coalition”.
Current MP: Mark Garnier (Conservative) born 1963, London. Educated at Charterhouse. Fund manager. Forest of Dean councillor from 2003-2007. Contested Wyre Forest in 2005.
Mark Garnier (Conservative) born 1963, London. Educated at Charterhouse. Fund manager. Forest of Dean councillor from 2003-2007. Contested Wyre Forest in 2005.
Nigel Knowles (Labour) born 1946. Educated at King Charles I Grammar and Birmingham Polytechnic. Author. Former Haringey councillor and Wyre Forest District Councillor. Worcestershire councty councillor. Contested Bodmin 1979, Hastings 1983, Wyre Forest 1987, 1992, Wiltshire North 1997, Ludlow 2001, 2005.
Neville Farmer (Liberal Democrat) Educated at King Charles I school. Journalist and television producer. 
Michael Wrench (UKIP)Gordon Howells (BNP) Richard Taylor (Independent Community and Health Concern)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 96981
Male: 49.1%
Female: 50.9%
Under 18: 21.3%
Over 60: 22.4%
Born outside UK: 3.3%
White: 98.2%
Asian: 0.8%
Mixed: 0.6%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 79.4%
Muslim: 0.6%
Full time students: 2.2%
Graduates 16-74: 15.2%
No Qualifications 16-74: 33.6%
Owner-Occupied: 76.1%
Social Housing: 14.8% (Council: 6.8%, Housing Ass.: 8.1%)
Privately Rented: 6%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 8.5%
BNP have selected Gordon Howells
Con maj 2,000
According to his website, Richard Taylor is indeed standing for re-election – making Ind hold the most likely result here.
Independent Hold
Dr Taylor’s decision to stand again certainly makes things interesting. He does of course have a sizeable personal vote but my sources tell me that while he is unquestionably “nice”, there is a feeling that he’s given all he can and – as someone’s already stated – run out of steam.
I wonder how anyone can be so confident of Dr Taylor holding on here when a) the Lib Dems are no longer standing aside for him, b) the health issue isn’t as important as it once was and c) many people feel the nice man of politics is becoming a bit ineffectual from a local point of view.
I wouldn’t make a prediction, other than to say I find it highly unlikely Dr Taylor will be returned this time. But then again, I’d be happy to be proved wrong!
I don’t think this is going to change hands. Ind Hold with a reduced Maj of maybe 1-2,000.
IND HOLD – 2,400
Con gain 1-2,000
IND KHHC HOLD
As I suggested, a third term proved a step too far for Richard Taylor. A 2,600 Conservative majority.
Lib Dems cost Taylor.
Would Dr Taylor have survived if LD had not stood again?
yes he almost certainly would have done, Andrea. Puzzling decision since he has tended to vote with the LDs the great majority of the time.
I suspect Labour will start to re-emerge as the main challenger to the Tories now, but it will take a while for us to become a serious threat.
Dr Richard Taylor did seem quite spade a spade.
On election night, he said he was disappointed, but he was glad he was going having been voted out, rather than giving up and walking away.
There’s something to be said for that I think.
These people who just walked away couldn’t take it.
Haven’t been to this seat for a long time.
Passed through Kidderminster in September 1992 (just after Black Wednesday) about some work based in Ludlow (although to be done in London).
Quite a lot of narrow boats and canal rivers.
This will be an interesting one to watch next time, to see exactly what happens to Dr Taylor’s vote (I assume he won’t stand again)
Cllr Graham Ballinger of Wyre Forest has defected from the Liberal Party to Independent Health Conern.
He previously defected at least once from the Lib Dems before joining the Conservatives; became their group leader around 20 years ago before then defecting possibly to Labour in the mid ’90s.
He has since joined many if not all of the minor parties on Wyre Forest Council, including the Liberals (not Lib Dems) and now Independent Health Concern.
I don’t think the defection of someone like that will be taken too seriously then.
The more a person switches parties, the less convincing and more damaged their reputations become.
‘The more a person switches parties, the less convincing and more damaged their reputations become.’
In this particular situation that conclusion is unaviodable. He makes John Horam look loyal and I’m surprised he still manages to persuade people to vote for him at all
Sadly there aren’t too many people who switch allegiances for the right reasons. I’d like to think Alan Howarth, Emma Nicholson, Robert Jackson and even Shaun Woodward (who had nothing to gain by switching to Labour) did it for the right reason,s and before them David Owen, but I think they are probably in a minority
“Shaun Woodward (who had nothing to gain by switching to Labour) did it for the right reason”
Are you f****** serious?!
“The right reasons” on Planet Tim seem to be realising the Tories are a bunch of right wing bastards, and/or their career was going nowhere under the Tories so time to try another party.
Ridiculous to claim Shaun Woodward had nothing to gain. He was going nowhere in the Tories and Labour made him a cabinet minister FFS.
And even now he’s still among Labour’s front bench!
So just because Pete swears at me, Hemelig, typical to form, has to follow suit – it reminds me of George Bush and Tony Blair, or rather George Bush supported by Tony Blair.
Shaun Woodward left the Tory party over a policy disagreement with William Hague who sacked him from the Tory front bench because he was unable to persuade him to vote against repealing section 28, a policy which the current Conservative actually now supports.
Given he’d played a major role in Tory central office – something which would obviously be used against him when he did defect – and had members of his in laws who had been Conservative members of Parliament, the ‘easy’ option would have been to grin it and bear it, rather than defecting to Labour and going about finding a new seat in the face of a bitter class-based campaign run by Arthur Scargill
I nearly fell off my chair when Tim said that Shaun woodward had ‘nothing to gain’ by joining Labour. I think Pete summed up my response nicely!
Shaun Woodward could see that the Tories weren’t going to be in government for the forseeable future and he did very nicely out of ministerial and later cabinet level jobs when it looked like most Tories wouldn’t be getting such appointments ever again.
And I don’t know why Tim should mention John Horam as some sort of benchmark for defecting and disloyalty. He was Labour, he joined the SDP, he went on to the Tories. Many many others did similar either by going from Labour through the SDP to the Lib Dems, or to the Tories or even back to Labour again.
I don’t think at a national level of politics in this country there is any recent example of what we might call a ‘perpetual defector’. There are several at local government level.
Paul Marsden made himself look a little stupid by defecting twise in the same parliament first to the Lib Dems and then back again to Labour, but I struggle to think of any other examples.
We have a character in my borough called Marc Cranfield-Adams who has switched so many times from Conservative to Lib Dem & back again that most of us have lost track, and he has become a laughing-stock having been regarded at one point as an exceptionally hardworking Conservative councillor. It was when he switched from LD to Con on the grounds that the Conservatives were a more gay-friendly party that he became a laughing-stock. We also had an Independent parliamentary candidate who had been in the Lib Dems & I think briefly the Greens before joining the Tories. The weirdest defections I’ve heard of recently however were between the Liberal Party & the Tories – can’t even remember in which direction.
There are some good examples of multiple defections in Northern Ireland. Jim Kirkpatrick, a former Assembly member, has defected from the UUP to the DUP and back again, twice.
George Green, another former Assembly member, started off as an independent unionist, then joined Vanguard, then its United Ulster Unionist split, then the Popular Unionists, then defected to the UUP, then finally joined the Conservatives.
That one IS funny Barnaby. Although since it is such an absurd excuse to leave the Lib Dems for the Tories, perhaps it shows he actually did believe it. Surely he wouldn’t have picked that excuse out of all those available if it were not his true reason? As you said, it is preposterous.
We had Andrew Wragg in the stoke area who has been Labour, Tory, Independent, Labour again, Tory again, Independent again and the saga continues.
I got to know John Horam in my first job 13 years ago, as he was a director of the company. I concur with Shaun that he truly was a case of principled defection. He lost his safe Labour seat to stand for the SDP, and came to the Tories in 1989 when the SDP basically ceased to exist any more.
I can also wholeheartedly agree with Barnaby, as someone who encountered Marc Cranfield Adams a few times about 10 years ago. This was before he started his defecting addiction, but even then I found him one of the most pretentious and oily people I have ever met. I think you are charitable to say that anyone ever considered him a hardworking councillor. He is also a serial workplace litigator, by the way, one of those tiresome people who sees offence about homosexuality in even the most harmless of remarks or actions. I thought he would probably have fitted into Richmond Lib Dems pretty well
‘I nearly fell off my chair when Tim said that Shaun woodward had ‘nothing to gain’ by joining Labour. I think Pete summed up my response nicely!’
I didn’t actually say that though did I Shaun – I said the easy option for him would have been to stay with the Tories and it would have been
He had a safe seat and despite the best efforts of the Cornerstone and No Turning back Group, there are still a rump of old-style almost indistinguishable liberal Conservative backbench MPs. He saw it as a matter of principle and resigned
It was about as much as getting into power as Mr Horam’s shift to the right – who seemed to join whichever party topped the polls at the time – the SDP when he joined them in 81, and the Tories when he joined them in 1987
I imagine someone as serious about politics such as yourself probably despises Shaun Woodward – but i genuinely believe his motive in moving was political – unlike some of the more recent defections – Andrew Pelham for example – which does seem like a case of sour grapes
“I didn’t actually say that though did I Shaun ”
…err, well yes you did actually Tim:
“and even Shaun Woodward (who had nothing to gain by switching to Labour) did it for the right reason,s”
Never mind, lets leave that there.
I disagree that the easy option in Woodward’s case would have been to stick with the Tories. On the contrary, the easy option was to do what he did-join Labour. The very very difficult option would be to stick with the Tories and change the party from within. I suspect that the party David Cameron now leads is one which on gay matters at least, Woodward would be quite comfortable with…IF indeed that was the real reason he left.
“It was about as much as getting into power as Mr Horam’s shift to the right – who seemed to join whichever party topped the polls at the time – the SDP when he joined them in 81, and the Tories when he joined them in 1987″
Thats more than a little uncharitable. If that were the case, you would expect Horam to have joined Labour around 1995 when it was clear they were going to be in government for a generation. He didn’t. He stuck with the Tories, often speaking from a right of centre viewpoint even when that was unpopular. It seems a genuine case of someone whose opinions changed from his old Labour days.
“I imagine someone as serious about politics such as yourself probably despises Shaun Woodward ”
Yes! I agree with you however that his actons were political. They were entirely self-serving. Was it REALLY such a shock to him that he was in a party that supported Section 28…given that we introduced that legislation and supported it in government right up to 1997 when he was happily working for the party.
“Andrew Pelham for example – which does seem like a case of sour grapes”
Absoutely. That was due to clear personal issues. But it wasn’t even really a defection was it. It was more of an expulsion.
That must mean Andrew Pelling – Tim you need to get your names right……… it only takes a cursory computer search to do that
‘If that were the case, you would expect Horam to have joined Labour around 1995 when it was clear they were going to be in government for a generation.’
It was never clear in 1995 that Labour were going to be in government for a generation if for no other reason than that at that time no Labour government had been elected to serve a second term.
The Sun saved switching to New Labour until the beginning of 1997 when it was clear they were going to win the next election and even then a lot of people thought they might mess it up by trying to take the UK into the Euro and being another one-term Labour government
‘Absoutely. That was due to clear personal issues. But it wasn’t even really a defection was it. It was more of an expulsion.’
As for Andrew Pelling – as Barnaby correctly points out – my understanding was that he was suspended from the party following the allegations from his partner/wife but was then expelled when he announced that he would seek re-election in Croydon Central as an independent
Following his defeat in 2010 he joined the Labour Party
As for the Hormam/Woodward discussion we’re going to have to agree to disagree.
To me Woodward is the sinner who chose to repent, whereas Horam got involved in a Faustian pact
“To me Woodward is the sinner who chose to repent, whereas Horam got involved in a Faustian pact”
And there we get to the real thinking behind Tim’s comments – not that it was difficult to spot to start with, given the list of all those who defecetd for the ‘right reasons’ were people who defected from the Conservatives to other parties. If you defected from the Conservatives you have seen the light, seen the error of your ways. The other way and it is a pact with the devil. And Tim wonders why so many of his posts attract nothing but ridicule
Well Pete you say that, but certain others here describe all those who defect to Labour as “loathsome” or similar without making similar judgements about those who defect in different or opposite directions.
I think Alan Howarth, of those listed by Tim, was relatively honourable in the sense that I believe he did over a long period of time wrestle with the fact that his views had changed and he felt his views closer to Labour than the Conservatives. he did not rather suddenly discover that he now supported the party from the other side of the political spectrum as Shaun Woodward did. My own view is that I am pretty wary of defectors in either direction when it comes to the main two parties. If I have not criticised Labour to Conservative defectors it is simply because there have not been any at other than the local councillor level. I think I’m right in saying that Reg Prentice was the last MP to do this and this was well before my time. I don’t know much about the circumstances.
I think one can accept that many people’s views do change over time. Obviously many voters switch between different parties, but I think there is a big difference with those who feel strongly enough to stand for elected office – there must be some depth to their commitment to the platform and the underpinning ideology or philosophy of the party they seek election for. Now I can understand the ‘I didn’t leave the party, the party left me’ argument such as for example where a Labour member may have left over Iraq for another left of centre party, or indeed people like myself who felt the Tory party moved too far to the left quit and joined UKIP. For the most part those Labour MPs who left to join/form the SDP come into that category (though their were a number who had been deselected and whose motives could therefore be seen as more opportunistic). I do think though that there is still sufficient fundamental difference between the Conservative and Labour parties and their whole mindset and outlook, that I struggle to understand how somebody has supported one of those parties to the extent of seeking election under those colours can quite suddenly decide that afterall they support the other side. What always strikes me about such people is that they have an arrogant sense of their own importance, as if they are bigger than party politics – it is merely important that they ‘serve’ and the party they happen to serve under is merely a vehicle for their own ambition. I would certainly take this view of defectors between the main two parties, whichever the direction of travel
‘If you defected from the Conservatives you have seen the light, seen the error of your ways. The other way and it is a pact with the devil. And Tim wonders why so many of his posts attract nothing but ridicule’
That last paragraph was a joke Pete but if you’re that dim not to recognise that it seems that you are the one with the problem
I think the problem is Tim that your joke looks too much like your genuine view to recognise the difference.
I know I often go on about those evil traitors Woodward and Quentin Davies, but I do believe-I hope-that I would not attack every defector to Labour in the same way. Alan Howarth happened a little before my time and I only really knew him as a Labour MP anyway, so I don’t really feel much towards him.
I don’t really feel much disgust at the defection for example of Robert Jackson or Temple-Morris for example. With them it was very much a feeling of, well its about time really, they weren’t really Conservatives anymore anyway.
I think that each defection has to be judged individually. Although naturally, a defector is going to have a tough job convicing people that his reasoning is purely selfless. Its not impossible, just difficult-and in my view rightly so.
‘I think the problem is Tim that your joke looks too much like your genuine view to recognise the difference.’
Any talk about “sinners repenting” and wotnot is clearly tongue-in-cheek and I’m simply amaxzed that anyone thought I was being serious
‘I don’t really feel much disgust at the defection for example of Robert Jackson or Temple-Morris for example. With them it was very much a feeling of, well its about time really, they weren’t really Conservatives anymore anyway.’
Although they would argue – and I agree with them here – that it was the Conservative Party that left them
The Conservative Party that they joined – led by the likes of Rab Butler, Macmillan, Maulding, McCleod etc – was very different from today’s party which is primarily Euroskeptic, Thatcherite and monetarist
It mirrors what’s happened to the Republican Party (although not quite to the same extent) in America where there just isn’t room for people in the centre of politics anymore
That’s npot an argum,ent either davies or Howarth can use thpugh as both were right-wing Thatcherites when elected (although Davies was always pro-Europe)
A very timely defection has just occurred. David Campbell-Bannerman MEP is leaving UKIP for the Conservatives.
As if to prove Tims point, I’m now going to say how very delighted I am by this news. My dream is for all UKIP’s big talents to come accross to the Tories and help make the party leadership properly anti-EU membership. Only with UKIP ‘infiltrating’ the main Eurosceptic party are they going to get their way in the future on the issue.
Lets hope this is the beginning of a more general swing from UKIP to Tory…although I doubt it will be given that we are in government and with our electoral position likely to get worse rather than better in the coming years.
Technically, in the case of David Campbell-Bannerman, it’s a defection back to the Tories, as he twice ran for parliament as a Conservative in 1997 and 2001 before defecting to UKIP in 2004.