The dream of the “Ultimate Portillo moment” is alive and ready to kick Trade and Industry Secretary Kemi Badenoch out of office.
That’s the jubilant message from North West Essex Constituency Labour Party after a stonking victory in Saffron Walden last night (Wednesday, June 12).
If the town council by-election in Castle Ward and Little Walden ward is any indicator of how the constituency vote will go on July 4, Conservative Kemi should invest in a Bradshaw’s railway guide and some pink trousers now.
Community activist Cherry Parker spanked the opposition for Labour. With 515 votes, she won 45 more than her Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Residents for Uttlesford opponents combined.
The result was dire news for the Tories - their candidate Maria Pearson got just 145 votes - not even a third of the number polled by Cherry.
And if the tally was a true blue tragedy, it was even more disastrous for the Lib Dems. While Stansted rather than Walden has always been its Uttlesford heartland, the 66 votes for Andrew Baxter was the political equivalent of a cardiac arrest.
What a difference 13 months makes. In May 2023, Labour fielded just one candidate in the Saffron Walden Town Council elections and party stalwart Simon Trimnell failed to secure a seat, trailing after Green Edward Gildea in the list of also-rans behind the all-conquering Residents for Uttlesford candidates.
Cherry’s win leaves R4U with 17 town councillors rather than a clean sweep. The party in charge of Uttlesford District Council presents itself as an alternative to “Westminister politics” but yesterday Saffron Walden voters rejected that parochial view.
They also demonstrated that former R4U leader John Lodge’s efforts to implement a primary process in the North West Essex constituency - effectively creating a two-horse race between a “unity” candidate and the Conservative Party - is irrelevant.
Labour’s Issy Waite, out campaigning for Cherry yesterday with Hertford and Stortford Labour candidate Josh Dean, doesn’t look like she needs his help in what increasingly looks like a head-to-head contest with Mrs Badenoch. As her constituency party crowed on X: “Kemi, we’ll see you at the hustings x”
The results of the Saffron Walden Town Council by-election for Castle and Little Walden ward:
Andrew Baxter (Liberal Democrat) - 66 votes
Lucy Brett (Residents for Uttlesford) - 259 votes
Cherry Parker (Labour) - 515 votes
Maria Pearson (Conservative) - 145 votes
David Sadler (Independent Saffron Walden First) - 186 votes