Birmingham Yardley Labour MP Estelle Morris attacks Government as she announces she will not contest the General Election (Birmingham Liberal Democrats)

Birmingham Liberal Democrats <info@birminghamlibdems.org.uk>

Birmingham Yardley Labour MP Estelle Morris attacks Government as she announces she will not contest the General Election

September 15, 2004 1:24 PM

Estelle Morris, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley has announced she will not be contesting the next General Election. Councillor John Hemming and the Liberal Democrats look set to gain this seat at the forthcoming election and many see Ms. Morris decision to stand down as her accepting the fact she would not hold the seat.

Ms. Morris decision follows the recent Hodge Hill by-election where Nicola Davies and the Liberal Democrats almost beat Labour in what was previously a Labour 'safe' seat. Labour's majority was slashed from over 11,500 to 460 recording a swing of almost 27%.

www.newsunlimited.co.uk (the Guardian's website) said "At the 2001 election she had a 2,576 majority in her constituency, one of the ... Labour marginals where the Liberal Democrats are in second place. They need a 4.3% swing to win next time round - highly achievable in the context of the recent 20% plus swings the party has secured at recent byelections."

Confirming her intentions in an interview with The Times today, Ms. Morris explained how she felt let down that new Labour had failed to deliver on a new style of politics as she had hoped that it would.

Ms. Morris also attacked the Government's 'Choice' agenda by telling BBC Two's Newsnight last night "The people who lose out from choice are the good hard-working families who we are in politics to represent," In a suggestion of more criticism to come Ms. Morris admitted she would be glad to speak out publicly about her reservations over Labour education policy once she had left Parliament.

Birmingham Yardley is one of the Liberal Democrats top target seats with just a 4.3% swing needed to win and with Birmingham Hodge Hill needing just over a 1% swing from the by-election, East Birmingham looks to be on the verge of electing two Liberal Democrat MP's at the forthcoming General Election.