Labour is expected to be squeezed from both the left and right when voters go to the polls
Labour is expected to be squeezed from both the left and right when voters go to the polls
Knowsley residents will be able to vote for their local representatives in the elections taking place on May 7. Knowsley Council is currently dominated by the Labour Party, whose 30 councillors make up two thirds of the total number sitting.
Knowsley is made up of 15 wards, with three councillors representing each. One third of councillors will be up for election on May 7, one in each ward. Here, we look at what local constituents will be voting for this year, as well as the issues they may consider when deciding how to cast their ballot.
‘People fed up of a system that doesn’t seem to be working’
Labour has always held over 60% of the seats on the council since its creation, and between 2012 and 2016 occupied every seat.
However, local elections are often regarded as a chance to send a message to the incumbent government in Westminster, and the national Labour party’s consistently poor poll ratings may mean that some seats change party this time.
Labour and Reform are standing candidates in each seat, while voters will also have the option to vote Green in the majority, and Lib Dem, Tory, Independent or Trade Union and Socialist Coalition in some.
Sophie Stowers, a research manager at the polling company More in Common, told the Liverpool Echo that in Knowsley, “there is a strong sense of people being fed up of a system that doesn’t seem to be working or delivering for them”.
From social care services to the state of local high streets and potholes in the roads, she said that people speaking to More in Common focus groups have expressed the feeling that: “We’re paying all this money, but what are we getting for it?”
That frustration can “turn people towards political alternatives,” she said, adding that Greens have been polling well and may perhaps have some success in places like Prescot, while Reform have been gaining in popularity in areas of Huyton like Page Moss.
Ms Stowers said: “On the left and the right you’ve got people looking for options outside the mainstream. What we think will happen is you’ll see Labour get punished quite badly from both directions.”
However, there are only 10 Labour councillors up for re-election this year, so even if all of them were to lose their seats, it would be difficult for any other party to become the biggest on the council. The Greens, for example, currently have eight seats, so would need to gain all of the contested Labour seats plus three others.
The key issues at play
Council tax is one of the most tangible ways in which local voters interact with their council. Knowsley announced in March that it would be putting council tax up by 4.99%, but the council has put forward a balanced budget without cuts to front-line services.
Following an Ofsted inspection judging Knowsley’s children’s services to be inadequate in 2024, the council launched a three-year improvement plan which included recruiting additional staff. A recent monitoring visit by Ofsted found “reasonable progress” in key areas, although inconsistencies in others remained a cause for concern.
Ongoing regeneration projects in Kirkby and Huyton, which have been developed under Labour, may also factor into people’s voting intentions depending on their view of the schemes.
People may also base their voting decisions on how national policy and issues such as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision, housing shortages and the cost of living are felt at a local level.
Knowsley Council announced £2.5m in additional funding for SEND provision, which will go towards projects including a new SEND unit at Willow Tree Primary School in Huyton. However, increased demand and rising costs mean that Knowsley services and families are feeling the strain just like others across the country.
In general, the local elections are expected to be “very difficult for Labour” as they “lose votes to the left and right,” Ms Stowers said.
“Merseyside and the elections there are really interesting because if you see votes slipping away to Reform,” it will mark a “monumental shift” in a region that has been an “anti-right wing bastion for a long time.”
