By Cllr Dave McElroy
At the Reading Borough Council (RBC) elections in May Labour maintained its majority by taking a seat off the Conservatives, even as they lost another seat the Greens.
The Conservatives failed to win a single seat. This means that the Greens have consolidated their position as the main opposition party in Reading and now hold more councillors than the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats combined.
The most scandalous bit about this is that one of the new Labour councillors is ex-Conservative mayor David Stevens, who was parachuted into a safe Labour seat (Abbey).
Apparently he had a sudden change of heart after the local Conservative Party refused to stand him as a candidate in 2022. Shocking, though not really, given that we’re seeing this all over the country, Natalie Elphicke being the worst example.
I guess that’s the best way a Tory can keep power in Reading, by changing his spots.
Either way, in my opinion, the Conservatives’ poor showing in the local election means they have zero chance of winning in Reading Central.
This is because the 11 RBC wards that make up Reading Central were won by either the Greens or Labour in 2024, setting the stage for an unexpectedly interesting race in the largely urban constituency.
In fact, across the whole of Reading Central the vote share makes it even more interesting, with Labour taking roughly 44% of votes in the local elections and the Greens taking 27%, ahead of the Conservatives on just 21%.
Regarding the election being called, it’s pretty exciting. There are a lot of people looking forward to scratching that itch.
For me, I will use this platform to demand that water, hospitals and homes are run for people not profit. That sort of thing. I cannot wait to stand up as an alternative to the dinosaurs who got us here.
A true alternative to the kind of party can’t bring itself to say no to cutting off water and power to children, no ifs no buts, there are absolutely no circumstances where that is ok.
Hopefully people recognise that the solution to our current situation can’t be more of the same. And consider voting for a party they want to win, rather than voting against a party they want to lose.
Cllr Dave McElroy is Green Party Councillor for Redlands Ward
