Election 2010: The battle for Birmingham Selly Oak
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.
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.
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Coun Dawkins’ official council-printed Community Safety leaflet had to be withdrawn until after May 6 as a precaution.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.
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.
