Purnell Quits

Stalybridge and Hyde MP James Purnell won’t be standing in the general election. The former Labour cabinet minister has told his local party it was an “extremely difficult decision to make,” but that he wants to step back from frontline politics.

The announcement is surprising, because Mr Purnell was seen as a potential candidate for the Labour leadership should the party lose the election, expected on 6 May. He dramatically quit as Work and Pensions Secretary last June in a failed attempt to oust Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. Since then he’s been involved with the centre-left think tank Demos, and he says he wants to continue contributing “ideas to public service and to the Labour Party.” You can read his full statement on his website here.

A leading supporter of Tony Blair, Mr Purnell had only served as an MP since 2001, when he took over from the long-standing Tom Pendry. Today’s shock decision means Labour must find a replacement candidate less than three months before the election.

The Stalybridge and Hyde constituency includes Mossley, as well as Stalybridge, Hyde, Hollingworth and Mottram-in-Longdendale. It’s been held by Labour since 1945, but the Conservatives will now be hopeful of causing an upset.

Mr Purnell had a relatively comfortable majority of 8,348 at the last election (slight boundary changes mean the ‘notional’ majority is 8,455), and the Conservatives would need a swing of almost 12% to take the seat. But they already have a candidate in place in Rob Adlard, a well-known figure in Manchester politics following high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to take the City Centre ward on the city council. He’s now the chairman of Longdendale Conservatives.

Although it would still be a surprise to see the Tories win Stalybridge and Hyde, it’s undoubtedly possible that a good result for the Conservatives nationally might help Rob Adlard get close to winning, especially if Labour doesn’t move quickly to find a new candidate. The weeks ahead will certainly be interesting, and I’ll do my best to cover the campaign here on Saddleworth News.

The electoral history of the constituency can be viewed on Wikipedia here.

The Times broke the story of Mr Purnell’s resignation this morning here. You can read more at the Manchester Evening News, The Guardian, Sky News and the BBC.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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