The Workers Party have successfully won the wards of Central Rochdale and Milkstone & Deeplish – continuing the party’s success in the town.
Labour predictably won outright, with 14 of the 20 seats going red.
Andrew Kelly (Liberal Democrat) the only leader up for re-election, kept his seat in Milnrow and Newhey with 56% of his ward’s votes.
Rochdale’s George Galloway, the party’s only sitting MP, heralded the victories – even as Labour held the council with 42% of the votes.
He said: “Labour are haemorrhaging votes in traditional areas.
“To use an emotive word, it’s a landslide.”
Galloway criticised Kier Starmer who he said had offered Israel his party’s ‘unconditional support’, reiterating his party’s demands for an ceasefire.
The Worker’s Party won two seats and 13% of the vote.
Galloway’s agent, James Giles, also revelled in the ‘glum Labour faces’ as the Worker’s Party challenged for seats across Rochdale’s wards.
He argued that their success in wards such as Kingsway, where the Worker’s Party came second with a margin of 386 votes, should indicate that they are not just getting the ‘muslim vote’, but that the sentiment also resonates in majority white areas.
Kier Starmer, speaking in Blackpool earlier, conceded that Labour had lost some seats in the nationwide local elections due to their stance on Gaza and Israel.
The Worker’s Party have said they have now set their sights on Angela Rayner’s seat in Aston-under-Lyne at the General Election.
The election results for Rochdale in full are:
Labour: 14 seats with 42% of the vote.
The Conservatives: 3 seats with 19% of the vote.
The Worker’s Party: 2 seats with 13% of the vote.
The Liberal Democrats: 1 seat with 12% of the vote.
Neither the Greens (3%) nor the Middleton Independents Party (7%) won any seats.
Featured image credit Charlie Valentine
