Ashton Hurst councillor 'honoured' to become Tameside Tories' deputy leader

Dan Costello has said becoming the new deputy leader of the Conservative group in Tameside is a "real honour" and a "big responsibility".

The Ashton Hurst councillor, who was re-elected earlier this month, was chosen by leader Doreen Dickinson to take on the role at a meeting of Conservative councillors.

He succeeds Ruth Welsh, who lost her seat in the Hyde Werneth ward at the local elections.

"It's a real honour to be appointed to take that role," Cllr Costello told the Tameside Reporter.

"We're a small group but it's still a big responsibility to be part of the leadership of that group. It's bittersweet because I'd much rather not be the deputy and still have Ruth with us to be honest, but I'm equally happy to step up and very honoured to be asked to do that.

"I hope I can do nearly as good a job as Ruth, time will tell, but they are certainly big shoes to fill."

Cllr Costello says it's "exciting" for him as he believes it's the first time a Conservative councillor from Ashton has been part of the group leadership.

Explaining the process of how he was appointed, he said: "In the Conservative Party rules, the group elects a leader. From the six of us, someone will nominate someone and then someone else will second that. If we get more than one nomination to be leader, there's a vote which we do as a group.

"The leader then appoints the deputy themselves so the deputy leader isn't elected. Doreen stood unchallenged and was unanimously elected as leader."

Tameside Conservatives' leader Cllr Doreen Dickinson, who also represents Stalybridge South, chose Dan Costello as her deputy 

'We all want the council to be as good as it can be'

As Labour celebrated a near clean-sweep in Tameside at the all-out borough elections, the Conservatives were left with just six councillors, as Cllr Costello's ward colleague Lucy Turner also lost her seat along with his predecessor as deputy leader.

But despite that, Cllr Costello feels nothing has really changed in terms of how effective an opposition his party can provide.

"Firstly, it's really disappointing to lose colleagues as I know how hard people work - it was a tough night for us, there's no doubt about that," he admitted. 

"We've always been a small group. If you look at it in pure numbers and our vote in the chamber, we're very unlikely to have a big impact in terms of decisions.

"I think the way we provide effective opposition is holding the council to account and it's providing really good well thought out scrutiny. You'll have seen us call out the big things like Godley Green and children's services.

"But it's not just about shouting the odds and to criticise for the sake of it, it's to be a critical friend. In the end, we all want the council to be as good as it can be for the good of our residents."

Across the UK, the Conservatives - who have been in government since 2010 - lost 48 councils and over 1,000 councillors. Cllr Costello, who was first elected in 2021, said it was disappointing but not surprising that people vote in local elections based on national politics.

"You just have to accept that it happens everywhere because the national picture is what people see every day on the news, on social media and whatever else. More often than not, the biggest issues that people think about, face day to day or have the biggest opinions about are national issues. That is going to sway the way people think.

"It's frustrating but you have to accept that it happens. The way you interact with that, in my opinion, is to go out and make that clear to people. That's about engaging with residents, being on the doorsteps and going to community events etc.

"It's about telling people you're electing a council and these are the things your council can control. The things you're talking about are national issues which won't change at all based on the make-up of the council, so helping people to understand that and make that separation."

Dan Costello's Conservative colleague Lucy Turner (far right) lost her seat in Ashton Hurst at the local elections

'I'm a big proponent of First Past The Post' 

The turnout was very low for the local elections in Tameside, at a mere 28 per cent, which was the most disappointing aspect for Cllr Costello, who feels it's detrimental for all sides of the political divide.

"We can talk about the disappointment of losing seats, for our party, and that is obviously true but when I look at the whole thing, I'm most disappointed about the turnout," he told us.

"Effectively that's a plague on all our houses. For whatever reason, we as a political collective in Tameside have managed to turn people off to the point that only just over one in four people want to vote. That's poor.

"Right now I don't know what we do about it but we need to figure that out. I think a lot of it will come from engagement and that's on all of us from all parties to be out there talking to all of our residents."

First Past The Post is a “plurality” voting system, where the candidate who wins the most votes in each constituency is elected

There has been a debate around whether the current First Past The Post voting system is fit for purpose and how much of an impact the new photo ID rule had on people's ability to vote - but Cllr Costello sees no problem with either.

"I'm a big proponent of First Past The Post as an electoral system," he said. "I think it's clean and gives you a clear outcome. It isn't perfect but none of them are perfect. Like everything in life, all these systems have pros and cons so actually what are you trying to achieve?

"Ultimately, for me, whether you agree with the government that's elected or not, one of the things we know is effective is having a party that can form a government. In other countries in the world, a big parliamentary coalition works. My personal view is that coalitions don't tend to get very much done.

"First Past The Post gives you a winner and they get to implement their manifesto because they have a majority in Parliament. For me, that's probably the fairest way to do it. I don't think it needs to change, I can see the arguments that people make and the imperfections but I think it's the least worst option.

"I can't see a problem with photo ID myself. I need it some days to take an Amazon delivery. Most people have it and those who haven't can get it free from the government. It exists in a lot of other areas, Northern Ireland have had it for much longer and it doesn't seem to create a problem there.

"I think it makes sense and it probably needs to go further. I understand there's some legislation going through about verification for postal votes which will probably come in too.

"Taking a step back, the idea we should create a system in which we can be sure that people who have the right to vote are the people casting the vote can't be a bad thing."

'When you have a result as disappointing as this, the only thing you can do is go and listen' 

So after the election results, how do the Conservatives go about rebuilding in Tameside?

"After two good years locally where we increased our stake in the council, the question is what was it about this year and how do we go out and attract our voters again," Cllr Costello said. 

"What you tend to find is very few people change their minds. People have an ideology like I will generally always vote Conservative and I'm unlikely to vote for anyone else but what you find is people either vote or don't vote rather than change their minds, which is why we can see reduced turnout and the fact we [the Conservatives] have less votes and less seats.

"It's the same either way, you tend to find where things swing it's because voters stay at home rather than voting differently. There is a portion of the population who are swing voters, they 100% do exist, but we need to find out why Conservative voters stayed at home." 

It was feared that the Tories would lose a third seat in Tameside when Andrea Colbourne tied with Labour candidate David McAllister in the Hyde Godley ward, but she held on to her seat following a recount, winning only by the drawing of lots 

Cllr Costello continued: "We need to answer that by asking the question and being prepared to listen to the answer and really taking it on board. That can be really difficult sometimes and it can be easy to make excuses.

"If in theory we were able to talk to all the people who would have voted Conservative but stayed at home and if they all said to us it's about national issues, then the solution for me is we say we didn't do a good enough job in helping people to understand the importance of this in terms of what happens locally versus what happens nationally.

"One of my big frustrations with politicians of all parties is the making of excuses. If people don't understand, that's fine but what did you do to help them and what role did you play in helping to improve the situation versus complaining about the outcome?

"We need to go out and listen and, based on what we've heard, we need to put together a plan that takes all of that feedback into account. We need to be honest, humble and open to the feedback and not just brush it off. When you have a result as disappointing as this, the only thing you can do is go and listen."

You can listen to our full interview with Cllr Costello below: