Sheffield Respect stood SWP member Maxine Bowler in Central constituency, which includes the city centre, students, mainly white council estates and two large multiethnic inner city areas (and one smaller one).
A vigorous campaign saw two leaflets distributed throughout the constituency, plus the postal leaflet.
For several consecutive weekends 50-60 canvassers were out and four polling districts were covered. Most of the time, Respect was the only party visibly campaigning.
There was any chance that sports minister Richard Caborn would lose his seat. He had received 61.4% of the vote in 2001 and any non-Labour vote could be considered a "protest vote".
Maxine got 1,284 votes (4.3%), coming fifth behind the Green Party (1,808 votes). This result is considered to be disappointing, especially as Respect had received the endorsement of leaders of sevMaxine Bowler eral ethnic minority communities and from Imams of local mosques. The Lib Dems came second as usual, with 7,895 votes (26%), up from 20% in 2001.
The BNP stood in the area for the first time. They saved their deposit (6.24%) in Blunkett's seat (they had come second in one ward in the seat in council elections last year) but not in the other 5 Sheffield seats.
They also saved their deposits in the 3 Rotherham seats (Rotherham 6.62%, Rother Valley 5.11% and Wentworth 5.05%) and nearly did in the two Doncaster seats and Barnsley Central.
We didn't see any sign of them actually campaigning in Sheffield, though there was a report of them throwing leaflets around and running off quickly in a Bangladeshi part of Sheffield Central.
A full analysis of the reasons for the relatively low Respect vote has yet to be made, but it looks like the main support was in the one of the white/Pakistani areas, just as it was for the Socialist Alliance in 2001 when they got 2.5% in Central.
According to Tony Mercer, Respect agent for Sheffield Central:
"Respect was the only party that went door-to-door with its anti-war message.
"We encouraged anti-war voters to come out in what was basically a one-horse race, but the vote split three ways: four if you count those who voted New Labour with a clothes peg on their nose. Respect represented the left wing vote against the war." majority of 5459.
In the ten Labour-held Birmingham seats, the average swing was - 8.4%, whereas Lynne Jones held on comfortably, absorbing a small 2.3% swing against her.
In London, with the highest concentration of Campaign Groups MPs (eight), Labour saw a large swing against of 7.8%. For the Campaign Group MPs the average swing against was only 6.6%. Campaign Group Chair, John McDonnell, had only a 4.1% swing.
John Cryer the only London Campaign Group casualty and MP for Hornchurch since 1997, lost with a swing of only 2.7%. The only other Campaign Group loss, Phil Sawford in Kettering, was defeated with a swing of 3.6%.
Obviously in the context of a reduced Labour majority the potential impact of votes against the government is greater than during the two previous terms.
At the same time the pressure not to rebel is much greater. It also remains to be seen now many supposed rebels have illusions that replacing Blair with Brown will make any difference to the implementation of Tory policies.
The Labour Representation Committee have called a major conference for July 16 in London.
It will be interesting to see which approach it takes.