A clean sweep in Kent...?

Tashi Tamang Bhutia. Remember that name, because yesterday he was elected as councillor for the Luton and Wayfield, a rock solid Labour ward on Medway Council.

Only Tashi, who is a Gurkha, does not represent the Labour Party. He is a Conservative and he overturned a big Labour majority to win his seat. The result was Conservative 1042 votes against Labour’s 1038 votes.

It might only be a narrow majority, but having grown up on the Wayfield Estate, I understand the significance of the result better than most. This was a quite stupendous result for the local Tories, because Luton and Wayfield was one of Labour’s safest seats in Kent and they usually hold it with a majority in the hundreds.

Of course, it follows a disastrous election year for Labour, with them being virtually wiped out in the Kent County Council elections. They lost all but two seats, including Sheerness, in my own constituency, which in living memory has only ever had Labour county councillors.

So as we approach the next General Election Tashi’s win will put a spring in the step of every Conservative campaigner in Kent. It gives us the opportunity for a clean sweep.

It has always been reckoned the seat that Labour were most likely to retain in Kent was Chatham and Aylesford. It just so happens that Luton and Wayfield ward is in that constituency, so Tashi’s win must be sending shivers up the spine of sitting Labour MP, Jonathon Shaw!