Shropshire Star comment: Laura just not part of ‘The Plan’
The dreams of Labour’s Dr Laura Davies of becoming Shrewsbury’s first woman MP are crumbling to dust.
Laura Davies has lost the confidence of her own local Labour membership.
What on earth has she done wrong?
Let’s peel back. In the 2010 general election Labour was in third place in the Shrewsbury and Atcham seat, over 12,000 votes adrift of the Tories. Standing for the first time in 2015, Laura Davies moved Labour to second, 9,565 behind, and in 2017 she narrowed the Tories’ majority to 6,627.
She was reselected from three applicants on an all-women shortlist in January 2018. And now she is being asked to step down after a vote of no confidence in her was carried, says Labour in Shrewsbury, by a decisive majority at a packed special meeting.
That’s quite some fall from grace.
It has been suggested that Laura Davies blotted her copybook by backing the creation of one “super hospital” to serve Shrewsbury and Telford, whereas the local party’s official position is to retain accident and emergency departments at both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital, and invest in both.
As Laura Davies is a doctor who has worked at both hospitals, you would have thought she could have been allowed a bit of latitude from the local party line on this particular issue. It is difficult to believe that there are not other forces at work.
Labour nationally has crowed about the big influx of new members it has enjoyed, inspired by Jeremy Corbyn and his undiluted socialist vision.
However, Labour in Shrewsbury is keen to dispel any notion that in the local party this has been accompanied by entryism, the arrival of ideologists from the hard Left who are enthusiastic spear-carriers for the Corbyn agenda.
Nevertheless, the inference of these developments is that Dr Laura Davies, Labour’s candidate in two general elections, is now considered deficient.
In what is happening in Shrewsbury, we have a microcosm of what is happening in Labour more generally, with tensions between different factions who believe they represent the real soul of the party. It’s an uncivil war.
The tide is going out for Laura Davies and her supporters. It will be revealing to see who replaces her.
