Candidates and campaigners from around 
the country recall their doorstep stories collected over years of Labour campaigning…
Politics And how do vote..? Adam Harrison
While out canvassing with a colleague a couple of years ago we knocked on the door of a house one Sunday morning and a young man opened the door. He was friendly enough, didn’t have any local issues but liked living in the area and would certainly read our leaflet. We got to the point of asking the magic question and my colleague segued nicely from pointing out our contact details in case he should ever have any questions, slipping in the all-important ‘how do you normally vote?’ at the end.
He looked from her to me and back to her uncertainly, glanced about, then down. Raising his hand and pointing at mine clutching a biro he said: ‘with a pen – I put a cross in a box next to the name of the person I like’.
He was being serious too. Well, we never did find out if he votes Labour. I think he went down as a don’t know…
Politics – a maritally divisive subject… Tulip Siddiq, candidate for Camden council, London:
“I was having a particularly challenging canvassing session in a
very Tory 
patch recently. Lovely houses but not particularly
lovely voters. Finally I stumbled upon the last house on the street when a good looking man opened the door. With all the enthusiasm I could muster, I gave my usual spiel about whether I could take up a few minutes of his precious Sunday….
“Imagine my delight when he responded with an equal amount of enthusiasm and started listing all the reason why he’s always voted Labour. I couldn’t believe my luck! Five minutes into a very in-depth discussion about non-dom statuses, an Angelina Jolie look-alike appeared at his side. Looking slightly uncomfortable, my Labour man stammered out that his wife wasn’t particularly keen on Gordon Brown.
“Turned out Ms Jolie not only hated poor GB, she also detested Labour’s policies on the economy, thought the Equality Bill was ‘insulting’ and that our defence spending was a disgrace. Finally when Angelina started attacking the NHS viciously, my Labour man decided to meekly defend our party.
“What a mistake. Angelina (who was starting to look less and less angelic) rounded on him by stating that he ‘never allowed her to voice her own opinion about serious issues’, that he was always condescending and that he had undermined her political judgement at ‘the’ dinner party.
“Gulp. ‘The’ dinner party. Even she looked like she regretted it as soon as the words left her mouth. I’ve never seen someone physically turn red and I somehow don’t think he was portraying his love for Labour. In the ten minutes that followed, I learnt that Angelina had flirted outrageously with Labour Man’s best friend throughout dinner but that wasn’t the only time she’d stepped out of line. (She had previously misbehaved in Paris, during Ben’s 30th birthday disco and during their honeymoon cruise)
“Finally when the argument was wrapping up and I thought things could only get better, Angelina turned to me and said ‘Isn’t he just a bastard?!’
“Me – ‘Ummm we’re not allowed to swear while canvassing but please consider voting Labour in May’.
“And I ran.”