Can Labour weather the Reform storm?

Good afternoon, readers, and welcome to your Thursday edition. Seats in four of the six council areas of the Liverpool City Region are up for grabs, including all in St Helens and Sefton authorities in today’s local election. But who will do well where? That’s the subject of today’s big story, but first, your regularly scheduled Post briefing.

Your Post briefing

“Leap of faith” for Bootle church — St Andrews on Stanley Road on Bootle is to become an Olympic gymnastics centre. The Grade II-listed church — disused since 2019 — is to incorporate a trampoline, a vault track, a soft play area for children and a small cafe under plans lodged by a company called Altius Gymnastics and approved by Sefton council. The council said the plans would “preserve the historic character” of the church and would "bring the redundant building back into active use and restore its key elements of architectural and historic interest". 

Gym fight latest — Merseyside Police have issued an update after two men were arrested following a brawl in a Kirkby gym last month. "This would have been a shocking incident to witness, carried out in full view of members of the public nearby, including children,” said DI Edward Barr, who also implored those with information not to comment on social media channels, but “come into us directly so as not to hinder the investigation." A video of the fight, which went viral on social media, featured two shirtless men grappling in the changing rooms of a David Lloyd (no, not that David Lloyd) gym; one of the men appears to gouge the other’s eye while the other seems to retaliate with an attempted bite. YouTuber Billy Moore later posted a video saying "My pride was in the way, my ego was in the way. I've got to be humble and go, look, I look battered and bruised.”

Kettles in hot water — Three people have been jailed after a burglary spree, including tearing cash machines out of shops and stealing fire station equipment. Twin brothers Carl and Lee Kettle, together with Barry Dillon — all from Liverpool — stole cash machines from sites in Merseyside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Nottinghamshire and fire stations in Merseyside and Cheshire. After admitting conspiracies to commit burglary and theft at Liverpool Crown Court, the Kettles were each jailed for six years and eight months, while Dillon was jailed for three years and eight months. 

Today, if you’re a denizen of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton or St Helens, you may be exercising your democratic right in the local elections. (Liverpool and Wirral voters will have that opportunity next year.) A third of the seats in Halton and Knowsley will be contested, while there’s everything to play for in Sefton and St Helens. 

Those who read our Sefton vox pop story will know that Nigel Farage has targeted Liverpool City Region’s northern coastal constituency. But how feasible is this for the upstart party? Jonathan Tonge, politics professor at the University of Liverpool, told the Echo this week that Reform taking Sefton would be “conceivable” but “pretty extraordinary.” Farage’s recent endorsement of The Sun may have made this task more difficult among Merseyside voters, considering the paper has been anathema to Liverpool FC and Everton supporters since the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.