02/05/2008
In our three election campaigns in Greater Manchester Respect's best result was in Cheetham, Manchester, where Kay Phillips took 501 votes to come third. Labour held the seat with a comfortable majority but a resurgent Conservative party knocked the Liberal-Democrats out of their normal second place. A good campaign by Respect has laid the basis for future work in the ward.

Meanwhile, in Moss Side our small team of dedicated campaigners were standing for the first time. Whilst they encountered much good will, we were unfortunately unable to convert this to votes at our first attempt. But with a starting tally of 153 votes Moss Side Respect will not be going away.

Over in Atherton, our new branch was out campaigning for Stephen Hall who polled a creditable 222 votes in his first election. Again, a good foundation was laid for the future.

In Birmingham, in a fantastic result Respect took a third seat in Birmingham Sparkbrook with a majority of 432 and just under 43% of the vote. Results for George Galloway's campaign for the London Assembly were to be counted on Friday afternoon.

Congratulations though to everyone who stood for Respect and to everyone who campaigned so hard.

Full Greater Manchester results:

Cheetham Ward - Manchester
Turnout: 29.2%
ALI Wajid, Conservative Party 673
PAGEL Martin Donald, The Labour Party Candidate 1735 - ELECTED
PHILLIPS Kay, Respect - The Unity Coalition 502
RAJA Sham, Liberal Democrats 429
SMITH Luke James Ribas, Green Party 141

Moss Side Ward - Manchester
Turnout: 24.6%
ALI Kashif, Conservative Party 185
COX Alistair, The Labour Party Candidate 1776 - ELECTED
SHELMANI Ali, Respect - The Unity Coalition 153
UKAIRO Zeke Hassan Ezekiel, Liberal Democrats 271
WOODCOCK Nigel James, Green Party 225

Atherton Ward - Wigan MBC
Turnout: 31.28%
Bob Splaine - Independent 976 ELECTED
Elnur Yusifzade - The Labour Party Candidate 856
David John Higginbottom - Liberal Democrats 821
Michael Nicholls - The Conservative Party Candidate 426
Stephen Michael Hall - Respect - The Unity Coalition 222