Sefton Sisters Support Emily in Bitter Labour Crime Job Battle

Sefton’s female Labour Party members are rallying behind Liverpool Councillor Emily Spurrell (above, left) as she battles to be Merseyside’s next Crime Commissioner. Jane Kennedy (above, centre) has announced she will not be standing for office again.

Ms Spurrell has served for eighteen months as current Police & Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy’s hand-picked £45,000 per year part time deputy and had hoped to progress naturally to the £80,000 top job when the election is held next May.

However, Emily is facing a challenge from former Bedfordshire Crime Commissioner Olly Martins (above, right) who was defeated by Tory Kathryn Holloway in the Bedfordshire elections in 2016. Mr Martins (above, right) has publicly attacked the ‘invisible’ record of Kennedy and Spurrell and set Labour Party members against each other in the biggest internal battle since Joe Anderson stood against Steve Rotherham to be City Region Mayor. Martins has described the regime elected under the Labour flag in 2016 as being “asleep at the wheel”  https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/merseysides-elected-police-boss-accused-16638873  .

Much of the fight betwen the two Labour candidates and their supporters is taking place on social media. Southport’s Janet Harrison is just one of the Labour women who have nailed their colours to the mast on Facebook against the southern intruder. Also backing Emily is Bootle Labour MP and former Sefton Council boss, Peter Dowd.

On the other side, Alan Hewitt has posted on Facebook about Ms Spurrell: ” I have never heard of the woman, she is applying for a Qango post which we do not need and so is, in my book another self-serving careerist on the make.”

Labour Party members across Sefton  – and the rest of Merseyside – are presently voting between these candidate. Ballots were sent out in July and voting closes on September 12th.