The foot infection has worsened, meaning the 59-year-old spent the last week knocking on the door in anticipation of the May local elections while in a cast. “People keep asking what happened and they tell me I need to be home and rest,” he says. “I tell them I have a vote to win.” Miller is examining the possible electoral implications. “I think he may have won one or two votes of sympathy,” he decides. You may need them. Sunderland has been a staple of Labor since the council was first set up in 1974. In almost half a century since then, it has been just three years since the party held more than 50 of the 75 seats available. During the 1990s and early 2000s, they had more than 60. They are as red as the Red Wall. However, as election day approaches, there is a growing suggestion that the Conservatives – Partygate or no Partygate – could do the unthinkable and take control here. The Tories currently hold almost unprecedented 19 seats after significant gains last year. If they – or any other party – manage to get just six of the 43 current Labor seats on May 5, it will eliminate the red majority and let both groups fight to form a ruling coalition. For Miller, such a result would mean the end of four years of leading the northeastern city. For Labor at large, it will inevitably raise questions about whether the party could win the next general election and how far it has come under Sir Keir Starmer’s two-year term. “We have to be very careful in diverting national conclusions from local elections,” said Matthew Flinders, a professor of politics at the University of Sheffield. “But if Sunderland fell out of Labor control – especially given the current political climate – I think we could call it disastrous for the party.” On a hot Thursday afternoon, exploring his own wing in Washington South, Miller – who is preparing for re-election – remains confident that such a fateful outcome will not happen. “I keep reading the Tories, saying they will do it [take control]”, Says the once charity CEO. “I do not know where they get their information from, but it is not the doors I knock on. You do not take anything for granted but I will say this: what is happening [in Westminster] does our job for us. “There is hidden anger out there.” Graeme Miller meets Diane Blanckley (Independent) So this is Partygate – and it’s worth discussing. Sure, there seems to be some – though by no means complete – anger at the fact that Boris Johnson violated the coronavirus lockdown laws to attend a series of illegal parties on Downing Street. A voter at the door, 66-year-old Phil Cave, tells Miller that there is a good reason he would not vote for the Conservatives. “I will give you an idea of what it is,” says the retired engineer. “He has blond hair and is fined by the police.” However, whether this anger will fuel the outcome on May 5 is a moot point. “Inevitably,” says Dr. Antony Mullen, the 30-year-old leader of Sunderland Conservative Group, the partygate will cost his team a few votes here. He has repeatedly called on Johnson to resign over the scandal. But he welcomes the fact that voters here know that council elections are not a referendum on the prime minister’s conduct. Local issues, he says, will decide the day. Draws attention to an application for the construction of a KFC in Barnes’s own wing, which, at the time of writing, has not made headlines in any national newspaper. “People here are completely dumbfounded by this,” he says. “Much more [than Partygate]. “And that may not be an easy national narrative, but it will have a much bigger impact on the way people vote than Boris Johnson’s behavior.” In this regard, he estimates, the internal polls have shown that the voters are moving towards the blue: they want a greater variety of views in the council. “They don’t just want a red block anymore,” he says. If this is true – and there is evidence on the doorstep to suggest that it is – then there is no doubt that the idea that Sunderland may be under political control is reinforced. This is a city that has seen great progress in recent times. Professor Lawrence Bellamy, dean of the School of Business, Law and Tourism at the University of Sunderland, says he is going through “the most stable period of development in decades”. Nissan has announced plans for a new 1 1 billion electric vehicle hub here, and new hotels and cultural venues – including a live music venue at a former fire station – have sprung up. Just last month, the council officially opened a new 42 42m town hall in an old brewery that had been empty for 20 years. However, despite such green shoots, this is also a city that is in the top 20 percent of the poorest in the country and which, in the end, seems to feel more and more that the Labor monopoly may not always have served it well. It has been a joke that it is advisable for the new City Hall to be on the site of a brewery because, as it turns out, the city councilors could not organize a… well, yes, you understand the point. Miller himself is the first to admit such criticism. “We took Sunderland for 30 years,” he says. “We have not done enough with the strength we had… Well, this is a thing of the past. “I have spent four years rebuilding trust.” (Independent) Perhaps because of the proximity of the race, this year’s campaign was vicious and, at times, not entirely clean. Mullen is nothing more than a staff member. He describes Miller as having a “Cheshire cat smile” and has suggested in the past that some Labor councilors look “ready to retire”. He has no obvious problem making political use of the fact that two members of the Labor Party have been convicted of child sexual offenses in the last three years. However, Labor has published leaflets containing verifiable lies. Someone nominated Mullen – who, like Miller, is also running for re-election – lived and worked in Bolton. It does neither. He lives, works and, for good, grew up in his own Barnes wing. When Miller is asked about it, he keeps it quiet. The party had thought the leaflet was accurate when it was published, he says. A member of the party who is campaigning appears offended by the suggestion of the offense. “They do it just as badly,” he says of the Tories. The new City Hall of Sunderland (Sunderland City Council) Now, with more than a week left, the campaign – and the mud – seems to be just growing. However, in the end, it may be people like the smiling Diane Blanckley who will decide the outcome in May. The retired teacher opens the door to the last house Miller knocks on in Washington. She is a floating voter who went for Johnson in 2019, but immediately smiles for the council leader. Twice in the last 10 years he has helped her solve various issues – one with a design dispute, one with a school. She thanks him one more time and then – inevitably – asks about his pot. “Take care of yourself, my love,” he says. I can count on your vote, he asks. Sure it can, she replies. “For everything you have done,” adds the 63-year-old. It’s an answer that can actually capture something important. In Sunderland – and elsewhere – the old tribal tracks are becoming less and less important in local elections. He feels that the quality of service provided by individual councilors in their communities is becoming increasingly important. of the help they provide to those in difficulty; from the clean hard graft they put in the role. It may, as Mullen says, not make national narration easy. But he suggests that no matter what happens in Sunderland on May 5, this city may never be red again – or any other color.
