Following his victorious performance in the Stoke-on-Trent Central CLP selection meeting, Gareth Snell has issued the following statement:

Gareth Snell reaches out to local Labour voters

I’m delighted to have been chosen by local Labour members here in Stoke-on-Trent Central to be the voice of local people. I’m proud to come from the Potteries and even prouder to be standing to represent our home in Parliament.

Labour has always stood up for local people here in Stoke-on-Trent, whether it’s building our first new hospital in 100 years or defending our vital children’s centres.

The Tories haven’t done anything for our city, and now they’re trying to sell off £1.2 billion of cancer and end of life care in North Staffordshire.  And UKIP’s plans for our NHS are clear – sell it all off to the highest bidder.

Only Labour will do what is needed to get a fair deal for the people of Stoke-on-Trent Central.

Gareth was victorious after an intense two hours of speeches, questions and answers.

The full results were as follows:

1st Round:

51 votes G Snell -46 votes A Gardner – 29 votes T McGuinness. Trudie eliminated after first round.

2nd Round – second preference

21 G Snell – 5 A Gardner

Gareth Snell wins.

Snell’s victory sparked a Social Media firestorm. His past comments on Twitter came in for a substantial amount of re-tweeting – this one in particular attracted the attention of UKIP and Paul Nuttall supporters:

Interesting little ditty given the result of the referendum back in June where Stoke-on-Trent Central recorded the highest proportion of those who voted for Brexit in the referendum:

81,563 – LEAVE

36,027 – REMAIN

And this one seemed to get the Corbynistas all hot under the collar:

But despite the re-tweeting, the interest from Guido Fawkes, The Mail and The Telegraph articles this morning –  the fact is that 129 Labour Party members turned out in Stoke-on-Trent Central to listen to the three candidates.

Two of the candidates could be described as being from the moderate wing of the party and one claimed to be a Corbyn supporting left winger.

Those members were from the left, right and centre and they made their choice based on what they heard on the night. I’ve yet to hear from anyone who was present who says that the result was anything but fair based on the candidates performances.

There were a few who said that at least one local candidate from the city who reflected the 80% of the CLP who endorsed Corbyn before the last leadership contest, should have made the shortlist. But despite this Stoke Central CLP returned a candidate who is known to be from the moderate wing.

They have made their choice and they seem very happy with it.

The other candidates who have thrown their respective hats in the ring so far are Zulfiqar Ali, (Liberal Democrats), Jack Brereton (Conservative Party), Godfrey Davies (Christian Peoples Alliance) and Paul Nuttall (UKIP)