Despair for Blair: Trade unionist Midgley wins battle for Knowsley
Despair for Blair: Trade unionist Midgley wins battle for Knowsley
Plus: More strange goings-on in the Eldonian Village
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The big story: Trade unionist defeats Blair’s man in Knowsley
Top line: Trade unionist Anneliese Midgley will (almost certainly) be Knowsley’s next MP after winning the Labour candidacy. She saw off challengers Louise Harbour and Ryan Wain at a husting-style event on Saturday to become the party’s candidate for the ultra-safe seat.
Context: Knowsley is the fourth safest Labour seat in the country. In 2019 George Howarth, who has served in parliament since 1986, won 80.8% of the vote. Thus, when Howarth announced he would be stepping down at the next general it was pretty clear whoever replaced him would be heading straight to parliament.
Who is Midgley? Midgley is a trade unionist who has worked for both Sir Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn. She was born in Knowsley’s Stockbridge Village and is a longtime trade unionist, once serving as Unite’s political director. More recently, since 2022, she has worked for the Trades Union Congress (TUC). As such, she enjoyed the backing of every single union ahead of her fellow candidates.
Here are a couple of the supportive messages after her win:
Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC: “I will miss @anneliese_midge because she’s been brilliant at @The_TUC and a massive support for me as GS — but she will be a passionate, wonderful MP for Knowsley."
Louise Haigh, Labour's shadow transport secretary: “Fantastic news! Congratulations to the fabulous @anneliese_midge.”
One man who might not be so pleased? Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair. Last week The Times reported Blair has become “so invested in the day-to-day” of Labour politics under Sir Keir Starmer that he was urging Starmer’s allies to support the candidacy of Ryan Wain in Knowsley. Perhaps this is unsurprising, Wain has worked at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2019. However, a combination of Midgley’s local popularity and old footage surfacing of Wain describing Liverpool as “the home of petty crime” can’t have helped his case.
A defeat for Starmer too? Wain narrowly missed out on making it through to the final round of voting, falling a few votes short of Harbour. Harbour is the deputy leader of Knowsley Council and was unsurprisingly backed by many local councillors. Meanwhile, the word is Starmer was much on board with Blair’s plan to parachute Wain in (however, he might not be so devastated himself — Midgley did serve as an adviser to Starmer between 2020 and 2022). All in all though, much annoyance among the Labour apparatus but a win for the trade unionist left: something of a rarity these days.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then her victory message contained a nod to the unions. As well as calling the opportunity to serve Knowsley the “honour of my life”, she also wrote on X: “Unions, I will fight for us in Parliament.”
Bottom line: Knowsley might be an easy seat to win for any Labour candidate, but it isn’t such an easy one to run. Still one of the most deprived seats in the country, Midgley will need a plan to tackle the borough’s stark deprivation, as well as the unavoidable racial tensions that were exposed at last year’s Suites Hotel protest. That’ll have to wait until after a general election though. Until then, it’s a win for the unions, and despair for Mr Blair.
Post Picks
🥁 Thursday sees the start of the Liverpool International Jazz Festival at the Capstone Theatre. Expect searing sessions featuring contemporary jazz's most exciting musicians. Find out more here.
🍷 Know your Rioja from your Malbec? Prove it at this blind wine tasting event at MerseyMade on Friday, hosted by wine specialists Bacchus. It starts at 7.30pm — buy a ticket here.
🎸 Scottish indie rock band The Snuts head to the Jacaranda Baltic tonight for an intimate performance of their new album, Millionaires. Doors open at 8pm — find out more here.
📖 Best-selling author and Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon hosts a talk and meet and greet at Birkenhead School on Tuesday. Tickets cost £24 with the event starting at 7.30pm. Find out more here.
🎨 The Adelphi hosts a pop-up painting class on Saturday, inspired by street artist Banksy’s Balloon Girl painting. The class begins at 4pm — buy a ticket here.
Your Post briefing
Astrid Smith, a 14-year-old girl from Southport, has become the youngest act to sign for a major record label (and fear not, Post readers, it isn’t Jacaranda Records). Smith has signed for BMG, whose acts include Kylie Minogue, George Ezra and Blink-182. Smith performs as Astrid Allegrah and five of her songs have now been released on streaming services. Here she is.
There was a distinct sense of deja vu for the residents of the Eldonian Village a few weeks back, when they woke up to the words “Maureen’s a grass” scrawled crudely on one of the walls of their village. Longtime Post readers might recall when — in our investigation into troubles in the village — the exact same thing happened. Same words, same paint, same wall. For those who don’t remember, the Maureen in question here is Maureen Price, an Eldonian resident who has fought tirelessly against the problems at the village, including the syphoning off of assets once owned by the whole community — a gym, a village hall, school land and so on — to offshore companies. Someone is seemingly still unhappy with Maureen’s campaigning…
And finally… this week we’ll be sending out details of our first-ever members’ event! We want to get the community of those who back The Post together, give you a chance to meet our team, and enjoy some food and drink together. This is exclusively for those who take out a paying membership with us; why not join them today?
Home of the week
Take a look around this Chanel-inspired house on Thomas Drive in Prescot. While we can’t say the pink velvet headboards and glittery toilet seats tickle our fancy, we’ve got to give it to the owners — that is dedication to a theme…
Recommended reads
A brilliant story in The Guardian about Kenneth Halliwell sheds light on the artist from the Wirral — a man who also went on to kill his famous playwright partner, Joe Orton. “Orton and Halliwell achieved notoriety through the sensational arc of their inseparable lives and deaths. The hidden nature of the crime for which they served time – these mutilated books – stood as a cover for the true nature of their offence: their sexuality. They were criminals twice over.”
This piece by Matt Ladson in FourFourTwo examines what happens next after LFC manager Jurgen Klopp’s departure. “What Klopp must not do is leave an ageing squad that is well past its best – something Alex Ferguson did when he departed Old Trafford in 2013.”
As usual journalism at its best factual indepth and don't just print a story they revisit it on a regular basis such as the Eldonian it gives a community a sense of hope that they are not alone and justice will prevail thanks Jack and the team
Good to see that on at least one occasion, "Phoney" Tony's getting his nose pushed out of joint. For someone who is supposed to have left the Labour Party, he still seems to have a very undue influence, along with his Bezzie, Peter (Lord Mandleson of Rio, - a comment which once caused an MP to be, if I'm not mistaken, for refusing to retract or apologise -suspended from the commons, way back when said dynamic duo were still officially in power)