With the Conservative government's attempts to destroy the NHS, economic incompetence, mishandling of crime, and attempts to rig the voting system, one would have thought Labour may be interested in an electoral pact with the Lib Dems to make sure the Conservatives faced only one party in elections.
This isn't the case: because in Redcar and Cleveland as a right-wing local Labour Party refuse to do a deal with any other progressive party. In my opinion they do this as they profit from a broken electorate system and secretly rejoice in people's suffering so they can have the odd few years in power.
Let's look at the evidence. In Marske the Conservatives took the largest proportion of the 2019 general election vote. It is a Lib Dem versus Conservative fight. Yet Labour field a candidate, hardly anybody has heard of, and who has never objected to any housing development. The candidate can't win. I was the only Labour candidate to win Marske in recent years, with Sean Pryce in 2011, and it took a solid 15 month campaign to be successful - as a well known Marske resident. The fielding of a Labour candidate only gives the Tories a better chance of winning.
Look at the Hutton Ward in Guisborough, again no deal. Labour can't win the ward but they field candidates regardless, splitting the Lib Dem vote allowing the Tories a better chance of winning.
Look at Wheatlands in Redcar, a straight Lib Dem - Conservative fight and yet Labour are attempting to split the Lib Dem vote.
All this allows the Conservatives to win seats and proves that Labour have no real interest in reform or betterment of the area. They have no real interest in improving the lot for local people or our environment, and they have no new ideas - they just want power for the sake of it.
I'd gone very easy on Labour - despite their unwillingness to take on issues such as climate change, environment destroying developers, corporate greed and billionaires. However, now it is clear to me that they don't care about removing the Conservatives from office - they have a vested interest in a back-and-forth power switching pendulum for their own purposes.
The party of the vertical pier, Anna Turley, and Vera Baird, will seemingly never change. The best option for the borough is a Lib Dem controlled council and in late 2024 two Lib Dem MPs.