The process to select a successor to David Blunkett as Labour Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough is about to get underway, with the constituency party this week agreeing a process to select his replacement.
Nominations are set to open this weekend with a final hustings meeting will be held on October 25.
With a majority in 2010 of 13,632 and 55 per cent of the vote, the seat is a classic ‘safe’ urban redoubt for Labour.
However the area hit the headlines recently with growing tensions in the Page Hall area of the seat between local residents and Slovakian Roma migrants who have moved into the area.
In a hard-hitting assessment of the situation, David Blunkett has warned there is a need to “change the behaviour and the culture” of Roma community, warning there was going to be an “explosion” otherwise.
Tellingly, the BNP got more than 3,000 votes here in 2010.
Candidates for the nomination have yet to emerge, however the deputy leader of Sheffield City Council, Harry Harpham, is regarded locally as a front-runner.
Harpham, a well-liked ex-miner, is also the council’s cabinet member for homes and neighbourhoods. With twice the national average number of council homes, housing is a major issue in the city and Harpham led the council’s successful Decent Homes programme.
Movement for Change community organiser Mike Buckley is another name in the frame and has already been seen out and about in the seat.
It’s likely that a number of other Sheffield councillors will throw their hats in the ring, conscious that the city has a tradition of selecting local candidates. In fact each of the city’s five Labour MPs has strong local connections.
London interloper Nick Clegg in leafy Sheffield Hallam is the only exception to that rule.
Tags: David Blunkett, Hary Harpham, Mike Buckley, parliamentary selection, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough
Let it be a local candidate and not some Spad parachuted in.
Would be good to see a BAME chosen, with a thick Yorkshire accent.
What is movement for change? I ask this as someone from London and have never heard of it.
@ Dave Roberts
Its another left wing wheeze that I’m sure he is paid highly for. Its part of Sheffield “Fairness Commission” as far as I can make out, which the Labour council has donated £1 M of the peoples hard earned cash.
This is a council claiming they have to cut jobs because they have no money.
As for replacing Blunkett, you can probably stick a Red rosette on his dog and they will vote for it.
The Fairness Commissions were a huge financial scam, the one in Tower Hamlets certainly was. The ” radical” vicar Giles Fraser got £2000 for chairing it. It took evidence and produced a report saying life was unfair. As Michael Caine observed. ” Talk about stating the bleedin obvious”.
The Fairness Commissions were a huge financial scam
Nothing compared to the Communities First program in Wales. What a totally corrupt shower of shite that is. Grace and Favour nepotism at it’s finest.
Blunkett? He did very well for himself out of riding the A4e gravy-train didn’t he? Wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.