Life in a marginal: a brief guide to Manchester Withington



As the distribution of leaflets I've received so far may have hinted at, Manchester Withington is a Lib Dem-Labour fight. Historically Withington was a Conservative seat, but turned Labour in 1987 after all the Tory voters moved to little villages in Cheshire. It stayed that way until 2005 when John Leech took it for the Lib Dems with a swing of 17.3%, benefitting from both the student vote and a steady influx of Guardian readers into the consituency. Leech held it in 2010 with an increased majority of 1,894.

The constituency is made up of seven wards: Chorlton, Chorlton Park, Didsbury West, Didsbury East, Old Moat, Withington and Burnage. In the local elections of 2010 (held on the same day as the general election), six of the wards voted Lib Dem, with only Old Moat going Labour. By contrast in the local elections of 2014, all seven wards voted Labour. Indeed, all of Manchester voted Labour; as the Lib Dems like to point out (*), we have a one-party council. So far this has not resulted in tanks rolling down Barlow Moor Road and dissenters found floating in the Mersey, but it's only a matter of time.

It's therefore going to take more than a gazillion leaflets for Leech to hold on to the seat, and I wouldn't put any money on him doing so, but the party is clearly putting in significant resources here, so the local results may not be as predictive as you might expect.


(*) When I say like, I mean really really like. We received yet another Lib Dem Focus today, the first from plain un-suffixed John Leech (TMFKAOMIW):


And this, typically, was inside it:



I'm sure Manchester will get an opposition again one day. From the Greens perhaps.

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