Man Met student wins council seat for Labour in election

Man Met student and now Tameside councillor Sam Gosling was so busy campaigning on election day he calculates that he clocked up 34,000 steps during the day.

Sam, who has just finished his final year studying for a politics degree, comfortably won the seat of Stalybridge North at his first attempt.

The father of two got special dispensation from Man Met to postpone his final exams and dissertation so that he could focus on his electioneering.

Sam told NQ: “I feel absolutely delighted. We had an idea we felt like it was going to go our way. But it’s hard, you can never tell.

“They started the count at 10am and by the time the first box was out at 11.30pm we knew we were going to win – it was great.

“Yesterday we were still campaigning on people’s promises to vote Labour.  We were out from 7am knocking on people’s until 8pm. I did 34,000 steps!”

Sam’s first council meeting will be on 21 May. He intends taking a year off from his studies after initially planning to apply for a masters degree and will concentrate on his council work.