Colne Valley West Labour

24/05/2026

Lovely day in Slaithwaite today selling Duck 🦆 tickets for the fabulous Slaithwaite Duck Race with Harry McCarthy. Raising money for Slaithwaite Scouts.

Ducks are still available online here 👇
https://www.ticketsource.com/slaithwaiteduckrace

Please come along on Saturday 13th June at Slaithwaite Spa Park for a wonderful community day.

The Ts&Cs for the duck race can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_QzQwcGwWuTB5cEqgyPQTZgaBys83klg/view?fbclid=IwdGRjcAR_9LFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR7ZbNgAZfk4LenYZS0vWbpnMuNxVWF_jUTVXaZuWu6Id6UtF_3AGuRRgqatng_aem_OyzUKPG48pqFaNkqDR3I0g

20/05/2026

19/05/2026

Congratulations to Andy Burnham - Labour’s candidate for Makerfield.

15/05/2026

📚 Good news that the UK is set to rejoin the Erasmus Programme, giving British students the opportunity to travel and study in Europe
🤝 The European Partnerships Bill in the King’s Speech will strengthen ties with the EU

12/05/2026

One of the new Reform UK councillors for Colne Valley West Tracy Clayton has doubled down on her extreme comments, saying people holding her to account are “boring”.

Her views are:

🔴 supporting Tommy Robinson, a far right thug
🔴 calling for Sadiq Khan - a British citizen born in this country - to be deported from the country
🔴 fat shaming women
🔴 attacking trans women
🔴 saying she doesn’t support the police
🔴 sharing far right accounts like Britain First
🔴 saying climate change is a hoax

It’s her first day in the job as a councillor.

You can submit a complaint about a councillor here 👉 https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/contact-the-council/councillor-complaints.aspx

It is vital that the Reform party do the honourable thing and suspend her. We won’t hold our breath though

10/05/2026

Reform UK’s new councillor for Colne Valley West has already pledged to “get rid of asylum seekers” - something he has no power to do.

1 day in and he’s already lying.

10/05/2026

Serving as the Councillor for Colne Valley West over the last 5 years has been the privilege of my life.

I was first elected under strange and difficult circumstances in May 2021 and I am extremely proud of what Colne Valley West Labour and the Kirklees Labour Group administration has achieved.

In Colne Valley we:

- Saved Colne Valley Leisure Centre, twice.
- Invested in local play parks
- Deployed youth outreach workers
- Secured the Marsden Blueprint
- Secured £50,000 through Listening to Linthwaite
- Funded a local Hardship Fund for the poor and vulnerable
- Resurfaced the Huddersfield Narrow Canal Towpath
- Prevented cuts to Slaithwaite and Marsden Libraries
- Paid for extra Police patrols to tackle dangerous driving
- Worked with and supported so many different community causes and groups.

In Kirklees we:
- Halved the number of people presenting as homeless (against an increasing national trend)
- Secured the redevelopment of our town centres
- Took Kirklees Children's Services from inadequate to almost Outstanding
- Built two new SEND schools
- Did not close a single Library in all the years of Austerity
- Began the work that will allow Kirklees to build new Council Housing again when the new Planning Bill becomes Law
- Kept Kirklees in a stable financial position despite very difficult times for Local Government financing.

And much much more besides.

I have to thank all of the Labour and community activists in Colne Valley who supported us and our campaigns in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026. The elections we won and the work we got done between them belongs to all of you as much as it does to me.

I have to also thank Cllr Beverley Addy and Jayne Fisher for Colne Valley for stepping up and being such supportive and dedicated colleagues and Tyler Hawkins for being my rock. Without you Tyler, coming along to save my campaign in 2021, I would have fallen at the first fence, I love you with all of my heart.

But I must especially thank my friend Harry McCarthy. Harry, you are a wonderful man, the cleverest and funniest person I know. You were one of the best Councillors Kirklees has ever seen, you worked tirelessly and constantly for the good of our communities and spending that 6 months convincing you to stand in Colne Valley is the single best thing I have done in my life. We've worked hand in glove together now for nearly 7 years, I will never be able to thank you enough for your friendship, your support and your work. I love you and your bar charts📊.

As for me, I'm devastated, I especially wish to apologise to all the people out there who need a Labour council with Labour values of social justice and protecting the poor and most vulnerable. You are constantly on my mind.

I still have trees to plant, looking forward to getting back out there. I still have my Beaver Scouts to look after in Outlane. And I still have Colne Valley Help to run, I have dedicated my life to waging war on poverty and I will never stop.

Thank you again to everyone who has been part of my time as a Councillor. I'm truly grateful and I am sorry it wasn't enough this time.

Yours in gratitude and solidarity,

Matthew

09/05/2026

We didn’t win in Colne Valley West. I lost by 28 votes. It was close between us and Reform.

It is a huge honour to represent the Colne Valley for the last four years and a deeply rewarding experience. Thank you to everyone who voted for myself, Jayne and Matthew this week, and to Cllr Matthew McLoughlin, Cllr Beverley Addy and Lesley Warner for being fantastic ward colleagues (and for putting up with me).

Thank you to Jayne Fisher for Colne Valley for walking up every hill, knocking on every door, posting through every letter box, and making me laugh throughout the campaign. Thank you to our amazing team of Colne Valley West Labour volunteers - there is no better team and I am immensely grateful for everything you have done. And finally thank you to the council staff, partners and community groups who have worked with us - we would have achieved nothing without you.

I am immensely proud of our record, and if I am honest disappointed that we don’t have the opportunity to finish the things we set out to do. From securing extra playing and training hours at Colne Valley High School for Linthwaite Football Club, to working with local businesses and groups to draw up the Marsden Blueprint, upgrades to playgrounds at Dirker Rec and Causeway Crescent park, opposing cuts to Marsden and Slaithwaite libraries, setting up a hardship fund for Colne Valley families, setting up extra road safety patrols with the local police and Pride in Linthwaite, the canal towpath resurfacing, working with the community to make our leisure centre more sustainable, detached youth provision in Linthwaite, and more, we achieved a lot but that was only ever alongside our community.

I hope our new councillors remember that they are elected to represent every member of our community, whether you voted for them, voted for someone else, or didn’t vote at all, and whatever your race, religion or background.

Thank you for the nice messages. I won't be able to get round to responding all of them but they are lovely.

09/05/2026

Today is not the result we hoped for but we’re very proud of all that our councillors and candidates have achieved in recent years. Matthew McLoughlin, Harry McCarthy and Beverley Addy have served the Colne Valley for a combined 12 years as Councillors, and Jayne Fisher made a big mark in running to represent us in this contest too.

We fought a positive campaign focused on a history of putting our values into action - supporting young people, upgrading our parks, safer roads, supporting the leisure centre, stopping cuts at the libraries and more - with a promise of more to come. Our local Labour team came a close second behind Reform:

Reform - 6683 - 33.1%
Labour - 6082 - 30.1%
Greens - 4186 - 20.7%
Conservatives - 1696 - 8.4%
Lib Dems - 1550 - 7.7%

And came within less than 30 votes of winning one of the three seats. So don’t let anyone ever say that your vote doesn’t count.

Progress doesn’t stop here. We’ll still be living in, supporting and volunteering in our Colne Valley community. And we wish the new councillors well so that they can deliver for everyone as we all expect them to do, whilst also holding them to account.

Following a bit of a rest we’ll be looking ahead to the future. If you want to support progress in the Colne Valley then please get in touch via Facebook or Instagram - or consider joining as a party member. 🌹