Respect ousts Bradford Labour boss (From Hereford Times)

Respect ousts Bradford Labour boss

5:50am Friday 4th May 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

George Galloway's Respect Party won five out of 12 wards it contested in Bradford

George Galloway's Respect Party has followed up its shock by-election victory by winning five seats on Bradford Council, including that of the Labour leader.

Councillor Ian Greenwood lost his Little Horton seat after three recounts to Respect's Alyas Karmani.

Mr Galloway, who upset Labour by winning the Bradford West parliamentary seat in a March by-election, was absent for the count, which saw his party successful in five out of the 12 wards it contested.

Speaking at his campaign HQ, Mr Galloway said: "By anyone's calculation it's been a fantastic night for Respect.

"We took seats off all three of the mainstream parties.

"We took seats in Bradford West, my constituency, but also outside of Bradford West.

"And we took the head off the rotten fish that is the Bradford City Council.

"We defeated a council leader who sat there, apparently impregnable and utterly complacent, for a decade and a half or more."

He said Respect offered voters a "viable alternative to the tweedledee, tweedledum, tweedledee-and-a-half politics that the three mainstream leaderships are offering them".

Mr Galloway said: "I think that the Labour Party in Bradford will be taken into special measures by the Labour national headquarters."

Comments(6)

AAA.Happy.Man says...
7:07am Fri 4 May 12

Mr Greenwood is quoted thus: "The issue I have ... is that Mr Galloway and his colleagues have made an awful lot of promises, particularly to young people in the district, that I am not convinced they are going to be able to deliver and that bodes ill for the future in my view."
Respect have gained 5 seats and don't, and won't, hold the balance of power. To expect Respect to ‘deliver’ anything from the position of a small minority group is setting up a straw man. After 17 years as a Councillor Mr Greenwood knows that only too well.
If this ‘Mr G’ (G2) really does want to test the other Mr G’s (G1) supporters’ dedication to the cause of youth in Bradford, let him press his extant Labour Council colleagues to offer Respect a high profile post in a Youth focussed Directorate.
Then, G2, we will be able to start to judge if Respect, at a local level, is more than a rag-bag of opportunist G1 waggon jumpers.