It’s no good pretending that the local election results were not very disappointing for Labour. I was very sorry in particular that Graham Heaney did not win in Paulsgrove and that Sarah Cook did not retain the seat in Nelson. They have both proved when they were councillors that they would have been a valuable asset to the Council. But when the national mood is against you, then no amount of hard work will tip the balance.

The Labour Party has to take a long hard look at the factors that influenced people’s decisions to either stay at home or to switch parties. There is no doubt that the economy played a huge part. People are feeling the pinch from rising food and fuel prices, and a great uncertainty about the future due to the global credit crunch. The abolition of the 10p tax was seen as unfair to low paid people, even though the Budget as a whole benefited the low paid, pensioners and children more than anyone. I, like many of my colleagues, will be pressing to ensure that those worst hit will be compensated as soon as possible because it was never the intention to put low paid people into poverty.

The Conservatives are understandably triumphant over their electoral successes but this will put the spotlight on David Cameron and his shadow cabinet like never before. They will have to come up with sound policies, not sound bites. I wasn’t taken in by the recent crocodile tears and sudden concern for the poor as I can remember the last Conservative Government when pensioners had to live on £69 a week, and I can remember when the Conservatives voted against the minimum wage for the lowest paid workers.

We may be going through uncertain economic times but the difference between Labour and the Conservatives as that unlike them, we will never consider unemployment “a price worth paying” to turn the economy round. Labour has made employment a priority and instead of 3 million unemployed we have more jobs than ever before which will help to see us through.