Who will win Colchester in 2024?

4 min readAug 6, 2021

This will be my last blog in this format. I have finally been convinced to launch a website with dedicated social media channels alongside lots of varied contributors. More exciting (hyperbole) news to follow.

So back to the million € question. Who will it be?

Are we heading back to normalisation, or is a political shockwave on the horizon?

Short answer. No.

Boundary Changes

This is a banana skin in the incumbent Will Quinces plans, as the changes certainly benefit Labour most of all in Colchester.

However, it always depends on the candidate. Now that it looks like Tina Mckay has done a moonlight flit, who will take her place?

Labour

After the Council elections I would have bet my bottom Euro that Professor Pam Cox would get the nod. Although she had gone awfully quiet since May, so she is losing a lot of momentum. (Not them)

Would the party select the feisty stalwart Tim Young again?

Credit where it is due, he done well last time and would be the best candidate. However, it is a female list target seat so it could possibly be Julie Young?

The Labour party are notoriously slow at these sort of things and have long drawn out procedures that only the hardcore comrades relish, so one to keep an eye on. Most likely in April 2024.

Greens

No election goes by without Midlander Mark Goacher slinging his hat into the ring. He did state it was his last time in 2019, so could it be Steph Nissen?

Although she is another one we have not heard a vegan sausage about since the May local election, so who knows?

Maybe they will consult the tea leaves and the earth spirits will reveal all?

I do predict that they will grow vote share and will move to being the third party in Colchester.

Liberal Democrats

It is going to be Martin again no doubt. The ‘person’ who now plays Mr Goss on Twitter has been ramping up the rhetoric and content on two year old causes, so it seems a lock in. I am looking forward to hearing about the Corn Laws and the Napoleonic campaign next. (Don’t tell him about Brexit for gawds sake)

Think local issues with regards to the Town Plan will come back to bite him as he cannot escape his role in it. He is popular in Mile End though.

However, if they swapped the candidate to Mark Cory, I think it would be a different story all together, as he is a true triple threat with all his attributes. The camera loves him, he is good on the mic and dances to the right tune. Like a Colchester political version of Justin Timberlake.

Conservatives

It will be Will defending his seat, he has quite the majority but it all depends on the bizarre “Progressive Alliance” that seems to be rearing its head. It is notoriously hard for an incumbent to lose as he has an established brand.

No doubt all the surrounding villages will all join together to defend their lands when they are called upon to bring it back home.

Alliance

By the looks of things there seems to be a deal with Labour and the Lib Dems. (Naturally, Labour have said nothing) However, this is being alluded to by the person who now plays Martin Goss on Twitter so hardly a reliable source.

Poor old Adam Fox is being tagged into everything. However, much of a nice guy Adam is, he is not going to be able to sell this to the Labour group or the local base. Especially with Middlewick being in his backyard.

The party with the momentum and the base is Labour, especially as they have grown and held vote share over the past two elections. So the best way to beat the incumbent (Will) is for all Liberal Democrat voters to Vote for the Labour candidate. However, the Liberal vote share has collapsed the last two elections and have split between the Conservatives and Labour.

So the Lib Dems and Greens will have to fully step aside, and not even go on the ticket. Which is highly unlikely Outcome

The most likely outcome is a Conservative Hold. Although the boundary changes mean a greater share will go to Labour. The whole lend your vote thing will not go down well in Colchester. The unifying candidate is not Martin Goss unfortunately, this is due to the Loonygate comments made by him that the hardcore base will not let go.

The last election results are below.