3:27pm Wednesday 8th October 2008
By Sarah Cosgrove
COUNCIL leader Clyde Loakes is pinning his parliamentary ambitions on being the next Labour MP for Northampton South.
The 38-year-old, who is originally from Northamptonshire, had his hopes to follow in the footsteps of current Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard dashed after the Labour Party decided on an all-female shortlist.
Stella Creasy was selected to be Labour's candidate for the seat at the next general election.
A Labour Party spokeswoman confirmed Cllr Loakes had “expressed an interest in the seat” in the selection today but there were “quite a few other candidates.”
The shortlist will be finalised on Monday.
Cllr Loakes said it was far too early to say if he would step down as party leader or councillor if he was chosen as the candidate, but said there was no conflict of interest with his council job.
He said campaigning for the seat could be done in his spare time.
“There’s plenty of examples of councillors who have been selected in disparate parts of the country and have kept their council seats,” he said.
He added: “It’s at an early stage. I’ve got a lot of obstacles to get through not least of all a strong local candidate, but it’s an area I’ve got a connection with.”
Northampton South has been held by Conservative MP, Brian Binley, since 2005, when he took it from Labour’s Tony Clarke with just 4,419 votes.
Mr Clarke had held the seat since winning it from the Tories during Labour’s landslide election of 1997.
Cllr Loakes has been a Leytonstone councillor for ten years and the council leader since July 2003.
When he took over he was the youngest council leader in the country and believes he still is.
He has not lived in the Northampton area since he left to go to university in the early 1990s and now lives in Leytonstone with his wife and daughter.
Cllr Loakes added: “I tend to think of London as my home now but I was asked to throw my hat into the ring and that’s where we are at the moment.”
Northampton is a large University market town of around 200,000 people and the home of Dr Martens boots and shoes.
During the industrial revolution it was a centre for boot and shoe manufacture but this declined in the 1970s and 1980.
Today’s inhabitants work mainly in distribution and finance. The university is also a major employer.
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