Day 208: Gerrard

[Silent Hunter]

Neil Gerrard, Lab, Walthamstow.

[merseysider]

A left winger who is retiring next time.

It's hard to believe that Walthamstow was actually a Labour gain from Conservative in 1992 - once upon a time this was Clement Attlee's seat. The seat had been lost in 1987 - at the time the loony left was at its apogee in London and working class East End voters in Walthamstow were not impressed. A left-wing Labour administration had taken power in Waltham Forest in the 1986 local elections and drastically increased the rates shortly before the General Election which did not help.