A bitter battle is being waged among candidates for Birmingham’s Selly Oak seat, writes Local Government Correspondent Neil Elkes.
Fears for the future of the iconic Cadbury factory has pushed the Selly Oak constituency firmly onto the national agenda.
In recent years Birmingham has seen its manufacturing base dwindle with the closures of giant firms MG Rover and Alstom accompanied by the demise of scores of smaller firms and the loss the thousands of jobs.
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And with the economy and recovery from recession the key issue of this General Election the future of Birmingham’s manufacturing hangs in the balance – a fact well recognised in the Selly Oak constituency – home of the Bournville factory.
Although on paper a fairly safe Labour seat following major boundary changes, Selly Oak is, the leading candidates agree, a more evenly balanced affair.
Labour accepted as much when Prime Minister Gordon Brown was wheeled into the constituency this week to highlight investment in children’s centres.
This has largely been seen as a two-way contest between two political battlers, Hall Green MP Steve McCabe and high-profile Tory councillor Nigel Dawkins and has become increasingly bitter as May 6 draws near.
There has been much mud-slinging, with developments at Cadbury forming a backdrop to the campaign. It reached boiling point recently when the candidates made formal complaints about each other’s campaign leaflets – both were cleared of deliberate wrongdoing but both also had to make concessions.
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In Mr McCabe’s case, the House of Commons had to be reimbursed after being sent an incorrect printer’s invoice for leaflets delivered outside his current constituency.
The Glasgow-born MP said: “I am grateful to Coun Dawkins for raising the issue as we have managed to get £700 back from the printer. I don’t believe in that style of politics but if I were a litigious man I would be looking very carefully at some of the false claims Coun Dawkins is making about me.”
Coun Dawkins’ official council-printed Community Safety leaflet had to be withdrawn until after May 6 as a precaution.
Coun Dawkins, who runs his own computer business, has campaigned strongly on the anti-sleaze ticket in the wake of the expenses scandal.
And he has an open goal with Mr McCabe being forced to repay at least £2,000 in mortgage expenses due to what the Labour MP described as “a mistake”.
Coun Dawkins said after the printers mix-up: “It seems unbelievable to me that after all of the terrible stories of abuse that the expenses row has caused that Steve McCabe is still making mistakes with his parliamentary expense claims.”
He points out that it is only because of his complaint that the taxpayer was refunded.
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The leaflets have been flying thick and fast, with Coun Dawkins claiming that the Labour Government should have intervened to keep Cadbury British.
He has also hit out at his opponent’s expenses record, pointing out that he has not claimed a penny during ten years on the City Council.
In retaliation, seasoned Daily Mirror journalist and Labour supporter Paul Routledge was drafted in by McCabe for an interview which fills the MP’s latest election address.
Billed as a ‘no holds barred grilling’ it provides challenging questions, but gives the MP a chance to explain his views in full.
For example, he backs a well-funded military action in Afghanistan to “prevent extremists using it as a base to launch terrorist attacks” and, in an area with a large student population, is given the chance to defend tuition fees while arguing for no further increases.
Of course the front page is devoted to Cadbury and McCabe describing how he is talking to Kraft to protect jobs at Bournville and backing a new Cadbury law to prevent hostile takeovers from abroad.
And given that Mr McCabe repaid modest over-claims in the expenses row, long before the scandal broke, he is given space to point out that he has been one of the least costly MPs.
Both McCabe, Dawkins and their Liberal Democrat rival David Radcliffe began their political careers at Birmingham City Council.
McCabe, a former social worker, chaired the housing committee while a council member from 1990 to 1998, when he gave up after being elected to the House of Commons.
Dawkins enjoyed a brief spell as cabinet member for leisure, sport and culture, before his comment that he would prefer a Dickensian English Christmas Market in Birmingham to the Frankfurt one saw him relegated for offending the city’s German friends.
Last time the Lib Dems were, in third place, only a few hundred votes behind the Tories, but the loss of the Moseley and Kings Heath ward to neighbouring Hall Green as well as the Conservative revival will widen the gap. But following Nick Clegg’s performance in the leader debate the campaign has been injected with renewed vigour.
And like his leader, the likeable Coun Radcliffe believes he may sneak through while the two political heavyweights swing punches at each other. He said: “I know that on paper this is Tory/Labour contest, but we have been encouraged by events and now it is all to play for.”
He agrees that Cadbury is the key issue. “Even people who don’t work there know or have relatives who have, so it matters to them. We are also winning support from those who want a fairer political system and want to see the trust brought back into politics.”
The constituency boundary has been significantly redrawn so it now only retains the leafy suburbs of Bournville and Selly Oak wards and has taken on former parts of the Hall Green constituency such as Billesley, Maypole and Druid’s Heath.
A notional 2005 result, based on the revised boundary would have put the result as Labour 47 per cent, Conservative 30 per cent, Liberal Democrat 17 per cent and others 6 per cent.
It is Labour’s second most vulnerable seat in Birmingham after Edgbaston, with a 8.5 per cent swing from Labour to Conservative needed if Nigel Dawkins is to become the MP. It is 169th on the national list of Tory targets.
Birmingham Selly Oak
The Candidates:
Nigel Dawkins – Conservative
Stephen McCabe – Labour
Dave Radcliffe – Liberal Democrat
Jeffrey Burgess – 海角视频 Independence Party
James Burn – Green
Lynette Orton – British National Party
The Constituents
Average age: 36.5
Average house price: £173,000
Unemployment: 8.9 per cent