The IWCA in Oxford shook the local Labour party to the core when it took three council seats in working class wards in Oxford last night. It was a particular humiliation for cabinet minister Andrew Smith who had personally spearheaded the attempt to unseat the IWCA incumbent Stuart Craft.

As well as spreading malicious lies about the IWCA and Stuart on the doorstep, the Labour Party put out a two-sided A3 smear sheet the night before and in the morning of the election, devoted almost entirely to attacking Stuart and the IWCA record in Blackbirds Leys generally. Perhaps the most bizarre inference was that the IWCA was actually soft on Class A drug-dealing in the area. The sense of dismay felt by the local Labour Party, mostly callow students shipped in from elsewhere, was illustrated by the failure of two of the three Labour councillors to attend the official announcement of the result.

Apart from the results the other striking aspect of the election was that turnout in Northfield Brook and Blackbird Leys (which used to be one ward) has been driven up from 12% in 2000 to 30% and 28% respectively as a result of the IWCA work on the ground.

Perhaps these statistcs help explain why Labour ran an extremely negative campaign in Northfield Brook. The party’s last-minute leaflet included attacks on IWCA councillor Stuart Craft saying he was an ‘angry and confused’ candidate who ‘uses foul language while canvassing’. More disgracefully Labour canvassers were telling people on the doorsteps that the ‘IWCA are a racist party’.

As reported in the Oxford Mail, ‘Lord Mayor Patrick Stannard, a Labour stalwart and a councillor for Blackbird Leys for more than 20 years, with one short interval, lost to Independent Working Class Association candidate Lee Cole. ‘Mr Stannard was spared the humiliation by being away on holiday.’

The IWCA has been active in the Churchill ward, where Claire Kent took the seat, for just over a year.

Full results:

Blackbird Leys
% Poll 28.17 Ballot Papers 1128 Electorate 4004
Lee Craig Cole - Independent Working Class Association 494 Elected
Partick John Stannard The Labour Party Candidate 415
Ian Corthan Bearder Liberal Democrat 92
Patricia GM Jones The Conservative Party Candidate 91
Doanld Martin O'Neal Green Party 36

Churchill
% Poll 28.92 Ballot Papers 1318 Electorate 4558
Claire Kent - Independent Working Class Association 386 Elected
Peter Ronald Johnson The Labour Party Candidate 376
John Martin Baldwin Young The Conservative Party Candidate 256
Sybil Claire Sheringham Dibdin Liberal Democrat 202
Matthew Ledbury Green Party 94

Northfield Brook
% Poll 30.29 Ballot Papers 1242 Electorate 4100
Stuart John Craft - Independent Working Class Association 555 Elected
Rae Humberstone The Labour Party Candidate 439
Mohammed K Abdel-Haq The Conservative Party Candidate 90
Pamela G Bones Liberal Democrat 89
Susan Elisabeth Tibbles Green Party 61