Gaza, Greens and 'too many councillors'... Manchester Labour has some local election headaches

Longsight on a Wednesday is busy. Drivers are using horns as much as their indicators, shoppers are filtering through the high street, and the chatter of the market is alive and well.

Busy too was Wythenshawe, on a Monday morning, where people ambled through the Civic Centre battling April rains and unseasonal cold spells. Less busy, but still lively, was West Didsbury that same day, where the quiet hum of café chatter was frequently interrupted by the screech of coffee machines.

To many of us, these scenes are standard Mancunian vignettes. But for those looking closer, there were details that an election is around the corner.

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‘Lib Dems winning here’ signs were affixed to gateposts on Burton Road. Signs for incumbent Longsight Labour councillor Luthfur Rahman and Workers Party challenger Shahbaz Sarwar are aplenty on the A6, both featuring the Palestinian flag.

And in Wythenshawe, official council adverts are talking up the work it’s doing to revitalise the 70s Civic Centre. For those who want to dig even deeper, there are even signs that, this year, Manchester Labour has some headaches in this election.

They are not headaches which indicate a major threat yet — the party currently has 86 out of 96 total councillors so mathematically cannot lose control at the next election. But by their standards, 86 is a low sum.

Manchester Labour insiders know there's a risk they are likely to lose councillors if Keir Starmer becomes Prime Minister in the near future - as local election protest voting is a fact of life for nearly every party of government. There's been evidence of that happening in Manchester too, with the Lib Dems holding 34 seats in 2008, when Labour's last Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was in Number