Newly-elected Conservative councillor has 'bigger challenge ahead' as he faces second vote next year

A new Conservative councillor has a “bigger challenge ahead” after his election on 4 May as he must fight to keep his seat next year.

Cllr Muhammad Asif gained his seat in Park ward in a double-win alongside Cllr Arfan Khan that turned both seats from red to blue.

But, while he felt “really great and humbled” to be elected, he says he has a “bigger challenge ahead if we want to keep these seats in Park”

“During the campaign, the response was mixed,” he continued. “Some people were in favour of the Conservatives and some people, because of the national trend, were against. It was unexpected that we got two seats.”

Cllr Asif, who is an accountant by trade, is in an unusual position: normally councillors are only required to defend their seats once every four years, but he will be up for election again next year.

This is because he ran in a ward with two vacancies: one of them, left vacant by Labour's Ikra Yasin, was up for election anyway, but the other, left vacant after the resignation of former Labour leader Shaz Nawaz, was always going to be voted on next year.

Initially, Cllr Asif was actually running for Ms Yasin's seat, but because he came second overall in the vote (Cllr Arfan Khan came first), council rules mean that it is he who will have to contend with consecutive elections.

The councillor says he wants to “have something to show” when he runs again and is particularly focussed on tackling drug dealing, speeding and fly-tipping.

But, with a general election looming next year, the national picture is concerning, particularly after the Conservatives lost more than 1,000 council seats at this year's local elections.

“People are not very happy with the Conservatives,” Cllr Asif said, adding that a “side effect of being in power” is that, when things go wrong at the top, the whole party is blamed.

This year, though, “all our hard work has paid off and it’s really great to have won both seats for the party”.

Cllr Khan was also approached for comment.

You can read more interviews with PCC’s new councillors here and here.