Walker: I’ve a mountain to climb to stay city MP (From Worcester News)
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Walker: I’ve a mountain to climb to stay city MP
3:50pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in News By Tom Edwards
MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB: Robin Walker says he is facing a fight to hold on to his seat.
ROBIN Walker has admitted he has “a mountain to climb” to remain Worcester’s MP – after a hard-hitting poll suggested he is heading for defeat.
According to a survey by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft, the Faithful City is one of 93 seats which will change hands to Labour in 2015.
More than 19,000 adults, in 213 of the most marginal constituencies, were asked how they would vote by telephone researchers, with Worcester voters among those polled.
The findings follow November’s police and crime commissioner election, when despite independent Bill Longmore winning the contest, Labour polled the most votes in the city.
And Mr Walker admitted he was facing a fight to hold on to his seat at Westminster.
He said: “If you look at the betting you could say we are the underdogs, we’re certainly not the favourites.
“We’ve got a mountain to climb and it’s up to us to rise to the challenge, but I believe it is there to be won. “I’ll be out there stating my case.” If people voted according to the poll results in 2015, Labour would return to Government with a majority of 84 seats, largely as a result of regaining old stomping grounds like Worcester and other key constituencies in the Midlands.
Councillor Joy Squires, Labour’s Worcester parliamentary candidate, said: “We know the Government is unpopular but Labour still has a long way to go to persuade people to vote for us.
“I want to win in Worcester because people want to vote for us, not because they want to vote against the Conservatives.
“It’s obviously very encouraging, but we’ve got to earn people’s trust.”
Mr Walker, who became an MP for the first time after defeating former Labour politician Mike Foster in 2010, has a slim 2,982 majority. But he refused to accept defeat in the wake of the survey. “The findings are relevant but in many ways it doesn’t tell us things we didn’t already know anyway.
“Inevitably, there will always be challenges for a party in Government mid-term, I just hope long term people will look at what we are trying to do in terms of tackling the deficit and the economy.
“We’ve got to state our case and I’ll be doing that in Worcester.”
Comments(7)
Hwicce
says...
11:07am Fri 15 Mar 13
Anything less and Mr Walker will be looking for another job along with a lot of his colleagues.
Arthur Blenkinsop
says...
11:23am Fri 15 Mar 13
bmoc55
says...
11:59am Fri 15 Mar 13
Labours prospective candidate was chosen from the restricted all women's list, so maybe the best candidate isn't representing Labour. No way to tell.
LibDems? Not impressed with their performance in co-alition, as they are holding back on many changes necessary to clear up Labours deficit
Then the remainder of the bunch are losers who have no substantive policies apart from populist issues.
MJI
says...
3:26pm Fri 15 Mar 13
.
Well I voted for him, and he seems to be doing a good job, prepared to go against his party as well.
Doogie 46
says...
4:19pm Fri 15 Mar 13
And let`s not forget all those great things Michael Foster didn`t do for this city!!
Guy66 is spot on - Milliband`s Labour (bossed by the TUC) will have us back in the 1970`s in no time.
green49
says...
11:28am Sat 16 Mar 13
nes,trains etc etc were all sold off by the Tories to private sector and look how we are all being screwed, look at the Banks, they were bailed out even though they were private companies by the taxpayer with conditions and they are not sticking to the agreements, This coillition ( no mandate dictatorship) are mindless morons who are just dragging us all even further into debt, so i now think it is time to run the country some other way.
Guy66 says...
11:08pm Thu 14 Mar 13
On the first PMQ's had the 'balls' to accuse the coalition of breaking the country - a week in to the current governments Parliament!!!!
Let's not forget the "Millionaires tax" - Labour 13years at 40% and then the last (very last) budget applied 50% to come into effect in the same year the coalition took power. So that is 13 years that Millionaires were taxed at 40% in Labour's rule and then they have the bare faced cheek to accuse the coalition of favoring Millionaires by introducing a 45% higher tax rate. The Coalition are now taxing the Higher earners at 5% more than Labour did throughout 13 years in Power. Do you understand the moronic sound bites Labour use to manipulate the idiots in this country???
We get the government we deserve and with the current level of blinkered idiots I fear Labour might just get in again.
Still about two years to go.
Oh and if Labour do happen to get in then let me predict this - the economy starts to turn, Labour gets in and then Labour claim all the credit.
Subsequently they increase wages for public sector workers, increase capital spending and some time in 2017-2018 this country is screwed.