Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth has lost his Leicester South seat, which he has held since 2011.
Ashworth received 13,760 votes, but lost out to independent candidate Shockat Adam, who gained 14,739 votes.
What goes around comes around indeed. In a delicious twist of political irony, Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s erstwhile golden boy and professional backstabber, has been unceremoniously ejected from his Leicester South seat. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
Ashworth, who’s held the seat since 2011, found himself outmanoeuvred by independent candidate Shockat Adam. It seems the good people of Leicester South have finally cottoned on to Ashworth’s particular brand of political chicanery.
Let’s cast our minds back to 2019, shall we? Ashworth, then shadow health secretary, was caught on tape dismissing Labour’s chances in the election and suggesting the civil service would need to “safeguard security” if Jeremy Corbyn became PM. When exposed, he tried to pass it off as “banter” with a Tory “friend”. Banter, my foot! It was a calculated betrayal, a knife in the back of his own party leader.
This is the same Ashworth who bemoaned Labour’s prospects in traditional working-class areas, saying it was “dire” due to a “combination of Corbyn and Brexit”. Well, Jonathan, it seems the voters have found your performance equally dire.
His pathetic attempts to backpedal – claiming he was “too clever by half” and looked “like an idiot” – ring hollow now. No, Jonathan, you weren’t being clever. You were being a snake in the grass, and now you’ve been bitten by your own venom.
The irony is thick enough to spread on toast. Ashworth, who once gleefully predicted Labour’s demise in working-class seats, has now lost his own to an independent candidate. It’s a fitting end to the career of a man who embodies everything wrong with Labour’s rightward lurch.
So, as Ashworth packs up his office and contemplates his political obituary, let’s raise a glass to the voters of Leicester South. They’ve done what Labour’s NEC couldn’t or wouldn’t – shown Jonathan Ashworth the door.
It really couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. So glad it did. Here’s hoping this serves as a wake-up call to Labour’s current crop of Blairite holdovers and centrist weathervanes. The people are watching, and they’re not as forgiving of betrayal as the party likes to think they are.
Ashworth’s political demise is a reminder that in politics, as in life, karma has a long memory and a wicked sense of humour. Now, who’s up for some “banter” about Labour’s future prospects?
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