THREE Labour councillors who were returned in one of the most hotly contested wards have blasted the tactics of an independent candidate who ran them close.
Jan Jackson, Adrian Pearce and Christine Beardmore were elected in Stalybridge North, with the former polling only 108 votes more than Steven Barton.
But after a campaign that saw fly posters and social media posts branding Cllr Jackson a ‘bully’ after she was suspended by the national party late last year amid allegations of which she was later cleared, they hit back.
“It was very hard to deal with,” said Cllr Jackson, who received 956 votes compared to Mr Barton’s 848.
“Especially when it wasn’t vindicated.”
“We fought a good, fair fight and had a good campaign,” said the newly-elected Cllr Beardmore, who received 1,057 votes.
“The disrespectful tone of the campaign was the most disappointing thing. It was only the independent candidate that was like that – everyone else fought a campaign on the issues.”
Cllr Pearce – who polled 992 votes – continued: “As the Conservatives are doing so badly nationally, the independent took up some of the slack and it wasn’t a very respectful campaign.
“We’ve terrific respect for our opponents, particularly Clive Patrick, who served as a councillor for a number of years.
“But we were all appalled at some of the behaviour of the independent candidate. I think we had to bite our tongue at times. It would’ve been too easy to respond to social media and we didn’t want to do that.
“We wanted to campaign on the issues we were interested in and we did.”
Cllr Jackson added: “We wish Clive all the very best for the future. He’s been a representative – he’s in the opposition but we greatly respect him and he’s done a lot for the community.”
Mr Barton did not even attend the count and result declaration but insisted he was delighted with the result – and hinted he may even challenge Jonathan Reynolds MP at the next general election.
He said: “Thanks to the people who came out and voted. I did the best I could on my own, took on four organisations and nearly won.
“There’s lots going on still with the election that be dealt with legally. Looking at MP now.”