Colin William Lambert (born August 1958) [1] is a British politician and former schoolteacher, who served as Leader of Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council from 2010 until 2014.
Lambert joined the Labour Party in the mid-1970s as a student. He later qualified as a teacher and became involved with teaching unions. He taught in Rochdale for 20 years. Lambert retired in 2023. [2]
Lambert was a councillor from 2 May 1997 to 5 May 2016, representing the Heywood West ward. [3] On the council cabinet, he represented Children, Schools and Families, when Rochdale was the fourth-worst local education authority in England. On 17 December 2010, nine Liberal Democrat councillors resigned from their party and left their coalition with the Conservatives on the council, leaving Labour as the biggest party on the council with Lambert as council leader. In the 2011 council election, Labour remained the largest party and with 29 out of 60 councillors. [4] On 3 June 2014, he resigned as council leader, two days after celebrating 1,000 days in the role. [5]
Lambert joined the Brexit Party in 2019 and was their parliamentary candidate for Heywood and Middleton in the 2019 general election. [6] He received 3,952 votes and came third behind the Conservatives and Labour respectively. [7]
Lambert is married with two children, and is happily retired. [8] and lives in Broadhalgh. He enjoys walking as a hobby.
The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. Its largest town is Rochdale and the wider borough covers other outlying towns and villages, including Middleton, Heywood, Milnrow and Littleborough. It is the ninth-largest district by population in Greater Manchester with a population of 226,992 in 2022.
James Dobbin was a British Labour Co-operative politician and microbiologist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 1997 until his death in 2014.
Heywood and Middleton is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Clarkson of the Conservative Party.
Rochdale is a constituency, which was most recently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by George Galloway. Galloway is the leader of the Workers Party of Britain, and was elected at the 2024 by-election. Rochdale has elected one Member of Parliament (MP) since its creation in 1832.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is a political party in the United Kingdom, established in 1990. The current party traces its origin to the Social Democratic Party, which was formed in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) and former Cabinet members Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the Gang of Four. The original SDP merged with the Liberal Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats, but Owen, two other MPs and a minority of party activists formed a breakaway group also called the Social Democratic Party (1988–1990) immediately afterwards. That continuing party dissolved itself in the aftermath of a by-election in Bootle, in which the party's candidate received fewer votes than Screaming Lord Sutch's Official Monster Raving Loony Party. However, some SDP activists met and voted to continue the party in defiance of its National Executive, leading to the creation in 1990 of the current Social Democratic Party under the leadership of the candidate who lost that by-election. The party has been led since 2018 by William Clouston.
Norden is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It was historically part of Lancashire until 1974. It is situated on the western outskirts of the town of Rochdale.
Blackley and Broughton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Graham Stringer. He was first elected in 1997 for the former Manchester Blackley and prior to this was Leader of Manchester City Council. The constituency covers north Manchester and east Salford.
Middleton and Prestwich was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Middleton and Prestwich districts of Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Elections to Rochdale Council in Greater Manchester, England were held on 1 May 2008. One third of the council was up for election. The Liberal Democrats stayed in control of the council after gaining seats in Balderstone and Kirkholt, and North Heywood from the Labour party but losing East Middleton back to Labour.
Rochdale Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011.
On 9 October 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Heywood and Middleton. It was triggered by the death of its MP Jim Dobbin on 6 September 2014. It was held on the same day as the Clacton by-election. The Labour Party narrowly held the seat following a recount. UK Independence Party (UKIP) came second, and increased its vote by 36 percentage points since the previous general election.
Elizabeth Anne McInnes is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 2014 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she was a Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2016 to 2019 and Communities and Local Government from 2015 to 2016.
Wera Benedicta Hobhouse is a British-German politician. A member of the Liberal Democrats, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath since 2017 and serves as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change and Transport under Ed Davey.
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but did not win any seats at the 2019 general election. The UK withdrew from the European Union (EU) in January 2020. A year later, in January 2021, the party was renamed Reform UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic the party advocated against further lockdowns. Since 2022, it has campaigned on a broader platform, in particular pledging to reduce net migration, supporting low taxation, and opposing the government's net-zero energy policy. Following Nigel Farage's resumption of the party leadership in early June during the 2024 general election campaign, opinion pollsters and analysts reported an increase in support for the party.
The 2019 Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 2 May 2019 to elect members of Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.
Christopher Mark Clarkson is a British Conservative Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood & Middleton from 2019 to 2024. Prior to entering Parliament, Clarkson was a Salford City Councillor for Worsley.
The 2022 Barnet London Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2022, alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom. All 63 members of Barnet London Borough Council were elected. The Labour Party took overall control, winning 41 of the seats to the Conservative Party's 22. This was the first time Labour had won the council outright; previously, the Conservatives had always won the most seats, usually with an overall majority.
The 2022 Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council election took place as of 5 May 2022. Due to boundary changes, all 60 councillors were elected at the same time. The election took place alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom.
The 2023 Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council elections took place on 4 May 2023 alongside other local elections across the United Kingdom. One third of seats (20) on Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council were contested.
A by-election took place on 29 February 2024 in the UK Parliament constituency of Rochdale following the death of Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd. The winner was George Galloway of the Workers Party of Britain who received 40% of the vote and overturned a 9,668 vote Labour majority at the 2019 general election. The turnout was 39.7%, compared to a 60.1% turnout in the constituency at the last general election.