The race for Birkenhead where Greens are hoping for a surprise upset

The Birkenhead constituency has always voted Labour since it was recreated in 1950 and in the last general election, Labour won with 59% and the Green Party were in last place with 3.3%. However, after continued success in local elections since, with 10 out of 21 Birkenhead councillors, the Green Party feels things could be different this time.

YouGov’s latest constituency poll shows Labour on 53% with Reform UK second on 16%, Greens on 13%, Conservatives on 9%, and the Liberal Democrats on 8% in the town. However, the Green Party believes this could be underestimating local factors and the race is in fact much much closer.

Prenton, which used to once be Labour is now staunch Green, after it got its first councillor in the area in 2019. Here signs can be seen in windows showing they’re planning to vote for Jo Bird, the party’s candidate, in this national election.

(Image: Ed Barnes)

The Greens will be hoping to take votes from the other opposition parties as well as former Labour voters. One voter, Stuart Bennett, said he was swinging between Reform and the Greens but he’s now voting Green after Nigel Farage becoming the former party’s new leader.

Lee Morris said he’s always voted Green in local elections but previously didn’t nationally. He said Labour “just seem to expect to get the vote around here. I don’t see them until election time but the Greens are constantly up and down.

“They are always doing something. It’s the stuff that needs to be done, not just stuff you like doing,” adding: “It’s a breath of fresh air.”

Godfrey Adams has voted Green at the local and national elections but previously voted for former Labour MP Frank Field due to his “personal touch” in politics. This is why he plans to vote Green on this occasion as “they have been here committed to us” and felt abandoned by Labour.

However, he said: “You find around here it’s no problem but other areas that aren’t voting Green. For the Green Party, it’s a harder job. You have got to persuade people.”

Not everyone is convinced in Prenton either. One voter brought up the fact Jo Bird, now a Green councillor, was a member of the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the issue about antisemitism under Mr Corbyn’s leadership. Ms Bird is Jewish.

The Greens also face a challenge in convincing voters to go for them in a national election when polls suggest Labour will be forming the next government. Angie Byron who also lives in Prenton previously told the LDRS: “I would like to vote Green but I would probably vote Labour because I do not think voting Green would make much of a difference in the country. I want the Tories out and see how Labour do.”

On the doorstep, Ms Bird said: “People like that the Greens work hard and there’s a couple of standout policies. One is rebuilding the NHS and social care through a wealth tax as well as Gaza and the Greens voting for a ceasefire.” The Green Party is proposed to tax assets over £10m and raise National Insurance for those earning over £50,270.

While Prenton is a Green voting area, she believes other parts of the constituency are no longer as staunchly Labour as they used to be. She added: “We offer honesty. We are honest that if you want good public services you might have to raise a few taxes,” adding: “In particular for Birkenhead I am putting Birkenhead first and what Birkenhead people want.”

While she acknowledged the Green Party is extremely unlikely to form the next government, she said she would still be able to argue for causes in Parliament. She said: “With a lot of people, they are voting Green because they do not agree with the way the Labour Party has gone and they want a representative that would put residents first,” adding: “They say they will give us a chance.”

Running for Labour in the seat is Alison McGovern who previously represented Wirral South as its MP. However, after boundary changes made the Birkenhead seat bigger, she went for the Birkenhead nomination in her party and won.

She said the party will look to tackle poverty in the area by bringing free breakfast clubs into every primary school, reviewing Universal Credit, banning zero hours contracts, and protecting rents. She said these two things would help end the need for emergency food parcels and  were part of “a comprehensive strategy to tackle child poverty.”

Pointing to her work helping move the regeneration of New Ferry forward, she said the party will look to speed up development of good homes with new planning staff for councils to move applications through, give local authorities new powers to purchase land and use it to challenge issues like land banking. It is proposing moving forward an initial 1,200 homes for the town.

She said: “I can’t describe growing up somewhere and looking around and I can remember Birkenhead and Liverpool in the 80s and it just felt like well people don’t really care about us and we’ve got to show that we can make progress so that people here know they deserve better than some of the dereliction that we’ve got.

“There’s big ways in which a Labour government could make a massive difference and that is making sure people have a good home, a good place to live, a really good job that pays them decently and people get a sense of respect from, and crucially having things that mean people have a good time at the weekend.”

Pointing to her work as shadow minister for Work and Pensions, she said Labour would look to link job centres up with health and education professionals to get people into better jobs so they were “not just ticking boxes.” Despite some scepticism things can change in Birkenhead, she said: “We can get money for the NHS. We can get 2m more appointments and a breakfast club in every primary school which I think will make a world of difference to parents.”

Sarah Payne is standing as the Conservative candidate. She pointed to the Conservatives’ pledge to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 which she said will lead to increased investment at shipyards like Cammell Lairds as well as promises of 8,000 more police officers and protecting the greenbelt from development.

Out door knocking, she said: “It’s a mix. It’s surprising we have had quite a few supporters on the street but of course not everyone,” adding: “People are worried about the cost of living. They are worried about crime. These are the kind of things that are coming up on the doorstep.

Though not from Birkenhead and a councillor in West Sussex, she said she grew up on a council estate and her dad was an apprentice, adding: “That is how I imagined you’d get a good job. I am very much from that background where I didn’t start my life off with an awful lot.”

This background she said meant she had to earn instead of continuing into higher education. She said: “There wasn’t a choice for me in going to get a degree,” adding: “I totally see how valuable it is to go out and earn a wage.” She joined the Conservatives in early 2019 over Brexit but also felt more women needed to be represented.

Despite the Conservatives being behind in the polls nationally, she argued they had “inherited a totally rubbish situation” from the last Labour government and pointed to more recent issues like Ukraine and Covid.

She said: “I think whatever the opinion polls say, it’s the voters that matter. Every resident should have an option to vote for a Conservative,” adding: “Labour dominates this town but on every street there are Conservatives and Labour have really taken people for granted.”

Oxton councillor Stuart Kelly is running for the Liberal Democrats citing his previous work as an electrician in the local NHS and at Cammell Lairds. He now is an assessor for apprentices.

In a statement, he said: “Local health services have been brought to their knees, people’s mortgages and rent have skyrocketed and water companies have been allowed to pump their filthy sewage into our rivers and beaches. All this by a Conservative government more interested in fighting between themselves than standing up for the country. This is your chance to vote for change.”

He said priorities including stopping “sewage dumping water companies,” reform around mental health, and reforming regulators like OFSTED, standing up for carers, and joining the single European Market.

Reform UK candidate Tony Stanley did not respond to the LDRS’ requests for comment but in videos posted on social media, he said Reform offered change, arguing Labour and the Conservatives “both make up the system and this system is well and truly broken. It needs fixing.”

Catherine Evans who is running as the Freedom Alliance candidate said she would ensure cash is kept as a payment option at the Mersey Tunnels, remove “unnecessary” 20mph speed limits, and end “climate change and environment alarmism and fear mongering.” She would have a dedicated surgery for independent businesses and protect the public from “government and corporate overreach.”

She said: “Voting for me is voting for thinking outside of the box and doing things differently. I represent the views of the people, over that of large corporations and corrupted or controlled politicians. Allowing debate and free speech.”