Trying to make political history while raising two small children and working full-time can be thirsty work. Jack Groom is taking a break from canvassing and dad duties in a Salford coffee shop, contemplating becoming the first Green councillor in the city’s 100-year history.
“That’s the aim,” he says, smiling over an americano. “Salford has long been a Labour stronghold and they’ve grown complacent. We know strongholds tend to be inefficient and lack accountability and transparency. Our support has grown in the area, and we are looking to make a breakthrough.”
The Green candidate in today’s early Barton and Winton by-election hopes that a groundbreaking win could pave the way for a political shake-up across the region.
While the trade union rep admits the Greens “don’t have a lot of data” to gauge just how successful they could be at making inroads into a borough that has been painted red for generations, he’s confident a national collapse in support for Labour will be reflected at the ballot box as Salford voters go to the polls.
It is nearly two years since the general election in which Labour secured the largest landslide this century with 411 seats and 33.7% of the popular vote. The party’s triumph was reflected locally as Labour trio Rebecca Long-Bailey, Michael Wheeler and Yasmin Qureshi all comfortably won seats in the Commons.
Now, they are heading into the local elections fourth in the opinion polls behind Reform, Grooms Green Party and the Conservatives. They are led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose approval rating has sunk to – 2% since he moved into 10 Downing Street.
It is against that challenging backdrop that Salford Mayor Paul Dennett said Labour candidates must work to communicate “what we have achieved in recent times.”
Groom’s job is to convince voters that Labour have taken their eye off the ball in Barton and Winton and to convert whatever erosion of public confidence the polls reflect into Green gains locally.
He hopes to do this by communicating his own disaffection with the party. The trade union representative voted for Labour during the Corbyn years but says they no longer have the “interests of working people at heart.”
As a young child, Groom remembers being “pushed around in a buggy by my mum when she was canvassing for the Labour Party.” He says that under Starmer, they have “walked back on their founding principles of being a working-class movement” since being elected.
“I’m a trade union rep and my youngest son is named after Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, but I feel the Labour Party is gone in everything but name.”
According to the Barton resident, the grass is greener on the other side.
With Reform leading the national polls, he believes the Greens offer the only viable alternative to the “status quo” and the “division Reform are offering.”
In the last round of local elections in 2024, the Green Party’s Jack Smith finished a distant second to Labour representative Jacqui Fahy. Groom hopes to overturn that 47% deficit by running a campaign that promises to push for the tram line to be extended into the ward, increase SEND provision and improve council tax relief for low-income households.
Groom has dyspraxia, a condition that affects coordination and has been tied to lower attainment in school. He explained how receiving specialist support opened the door for him to achieve better grades and earn a spot at Kent University.
“We are going to provide further provision to liaise better with parents, and then make sure that every child, whether they’re in a specialist environment or whether they have additional needs in a mainstream school, can get the support they need to succeed in education.
“We still see that in Salford there are sort of below performance levels in key indicators, and so we want to do what we can to bring that up to the national average. You don’t want to feel like whatever your child’s circumstance that that’s going to inhibit them in life and stop them from succeeding in education and beyond that.
“It’s quite personal because I grew up with dyspraxia, and in my early childhood years, it was very difficult to access support. Once I did get that support, it made a huge difference to me.
“I went from sort of the bottom of my class in just about every subject to eventually doing well in A-levels and then doing well in university. It really made a massive difference to me and I wouldn’t be where I am without that. It gave me a renewed sense of confidence.”
Looking out the window from a Salford Quays coffee shop, Groom is faced with the sort of scene developers hope lies in store for a transformed Eccles town centre. In March, residents in his ward were asked for feedback on a draft masterplan tabled by developers.
Similarities can be found in those colourful sketches depicting modern high-rise flats, spaces for trendy businesses and joggers and dogwalkers passing through an area currently among the 30% most deprived in England.
Developers have outlined the potential for 1,272 private and affordable new homes on the existing shopping centre site in the town, but Groom expressed concern about the project on his patch.
“I attended a consultation at Eccles Town Hall about the proposed plans for the development and the representatives were quite vague in their answers.
“That concerns me and a lot of other people in the Green Party. We see some of the plans that are very focused on apartments and they’re not clear on what the ownership model of those will be.”
Residents in the Barton and Winton ward may have had one of Groom’s lime green leaflets posted through their letter box. On it, he commits to “prioritise council homes and local businesses” as part of the regeneration if he wins today’s election.
“You have to question whether they will be council homes where people can build stable lives that are affordable. Will people living there be able to bring up families, or will they be for the purposes of investment buyers, where people are paying unaffordable rents?”
He added: “If you’re using this as a project of that kind, that’s not bringing money in, it’s taking money out. The area needs to keep our wealth in the area to help us build each other up. We need council housing, we need it to be matched with public service provision, community spaces, because we’ve had spaces in our public lives erode.”
To become the Greens’ first councillor in Salford, he will have to overcome five other candidates in today’s contest.
The Barton and Winton by-election was called following the death of long-serving councillor David Lancaster. After two electors requested that the vote take place ahead of the May polls, the council selected Wednesday, 22 April to hold the contest.
Mr Lancaster’s former colleague, Catherine Goodyer, is standing for Labour in a ward where they have long been dominant.
Goodyear acknowledged she would have “big shoes to fill” if elected on a campaign promising to hold exploitative landlords to account and “clean up our streets.”
The caseworker has lived in the ward for seven years and praised the “brilliant community groups and schools that make Barton and Winton a brilliant place to live.”
Groom feels that Goodyear and Reform UK candidate Michael Felse will be his main opponents in the polls.
To some voters, Felse will be better known by his drag persona Ethol Mary. Under this alias, he was chosen to lead the 2011 Manchester Pride festival as its main ‘Pride Queen’.
Talking to Salford Now in March, he spoke disparagingly about the current council to Salford Now in March, calling the Labour Party a “joke.”
The man who finished eighth in Salford’s 2012 mayoral election as a member of the English Democrats identified the CorpAcq stadium as a potential money spinner for the council and promised to reinvest savings he envisages can be made into wider regeneration projects.
“Growth for our iconic Stadium can save Salford Council Taxpayers over £1.5million a year. Every year,” he claimed.
Liberal Democrat candidate Anthony Ian Duke too feels Labour’s long-standing control has fuelled “complacency.”
Duke says he is focused on clamping down on anti-social behaviour and has pledged to improve the cleanliness of Barton and Winton streets.
He said: “Labour has taken Salford for granted for too long, relying on its majority instead of earning residents’ trust. The result is a council that’s out of touch and failing on the basics, with residents facing rising costs and overstretched services.
“Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats in opposition have delivered real wins, from late-night trams to cleaner waterways and are focused on safer streets, cleaner neighbourhoods, stronger local services, and protecting community spaces. This election offers a clear choice: more of the same, or a fresh, community-based alternative for Salford – delivered by the Liberal Democrats.”
Meanwhile, Barton-born and bred English teacher Kirsty Downie is representing Your Party – the socialist party headed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
She described her motivation behind running in the election: “As your Independent Your Party Candidate, I intend to put working families, single parents and community needs first, not private profit or austerity cuts.
“I am a 48-year-old single mother with ADHD, an English Language Teacher and a home-educating parent. I bring real-life experience and determination to fight for a fairer Barton and Winton.
“I was born and bred in Barton. I live locally and all I see is the managed decline of our community.”
Meanwhile, the Conservatives, who have historically struggled to gain a foothold in Barton and Winton, have turned to a prominent local figure in an effort to shift their fortunes.
Holly Muldoon, the deputy chairman for Worsley and Eccles, describes herself as a familiar face in the area, where she is involved in running several hospitality venues. She did not respond to an invitation to comment on her campaign by Salford Now.
Polls in the Barton and Winton ward will close at 10pm.
