I’m not going to use this column to make a political point this week.
Instead I want to use this soapbox to make a simple organisational appeal as an NEC member to Labour supporters reading this on the Progress website or via email.
If you are in an area with council elections this May and your local party has not yet picked a full team of candidates, please put yourself forward.
John Spellar MP’s post on Labour Uncut on Tuesday set out exactly why it is essential that Labour has at least one candidate running in every council ward where there is an election, however weak the party’s historic vote has been there:
‘The public will only be able to register their disgust with this Tory-led coalition if they have Labour candidates to vote for. It is not only bad for Labour, but bad for democracy if we let the case go by default in some areas by not running candidates.’
With the massive public disillusion with the Lib Dems shown by their derisory sixth place in the Barnsley Central by-election, we cannot allow any part of the country to have council polls where voters cannot choose Labour. In the last decade there have been too many, particularly southern and rural, seats where voters have reached the polling booth and found only the Tories and Lib Dems on the ballot paper.
The excellent Southern Front website edited by Stuart King, set out in detail the massive organisational challenge for Labour of finding enough candidates in the southeast, southwest and eastern regions where there are nearly 5,000 council seats up for election.
It’s worth repeating their findings:
‘• Of the 140 councils with elections in 2011 (& 2007), 82 elect all of their councillors in one go (‘all out’ elections) and 58 elect one-third of their councillors (election ‘by thirds’);
• In only 44 of the 140 councils was Labour able to stand a full slate of Labour candidates last time round;
• In 60 of the 140 councils (43 per cent) Labour stood candidates in fewer than half of the wards electing candidates;
• Labour failed to stand any candidates at all in three local authority ‘all out’ elections: Cotswold, Mid Devon and North Devon;
• Labour’s performance was better where the elections were by thirds, where in all but four of the councils Labour was able to stand in more than half of the contested seats;
• Conversely, Labour did much worse in those 82 authorities where all of the councillors were being elected, with it failing in 56 of the 82 to stand a slate of more than half the seats (68 per cent);
• 2,981 electoral wards were contested in 2007, in 1,241 of which Labour did not field a candidate (42 per cent);
• Across the south Labour stood 2,483 candidates – barely half of the total up for election of 4,787 (52 per cent)
• Labour failed to fully contest a majority of the seats up for election, managing a full slate of candidates in 1,435 wards (48 per cent);
• The outcome of the 2007 elections resulted in Labour failing to win a single seat in 64 southern councils; in a further 38, Labour groups of five or fewer were elected’
In many areas candidates are already in place. But if you are a Labour supporter and you live in an area where the candidates have not already been picked you can change this.
We have until nominations close on 4 April to sort this out and field candidates in places that have not had the chance to vote Labour in council elections for many years.
Here’s how:
• If you are a Labour member call your CLP secretary and ask if they still need candidates. Offer to fill any gaps. Their number is on the back of your membership card
• If you can’t get hold of your CLP secretary or get a satisfactory response, or you need advice about the nomination process, call your Labour Regional Office – contact details here
• If you are a Labour supporter or member of an affiliate but not already a member, join first here – then take the steps above
• If you have friends and family who are strong Labour supporters in areas where we have trouble finding candidates, please put them in touch with their local party – call the Progress office if you need help identifying contacts
You can be part of making Labour a truly national party, with votes in every part of the country where there are elections. Please do it.
Hear, hear. It’s all to play for on 5 May. This is our best chance in years to make big advances in local government – stand for Labour!
It’s all very well making sure that there’s a candidate in every ward (and I support this wholeheartedly) – but with multiple seat wards, and low membership of local parties (not just Labour) – some of us who are standing will be slightly worried should we be elected – and I’d imagine some of the other parties are in the same boat. I can’t help but feel that we need to move towards a wider range of membership types in order to ensure enough future candidates
Notwithstanding the apparent waiving of any length of membership criteria implied in the article, the reluctance of some members to stand for fear of actually getting elected presents almost as big a problem as the difficulty experienced in many wards of finding enough people to sign the Nomination Paper.
The real problem is the absurd requirement to get 10 signatures on every nomination paper. This is an appalling task for hard pressed local parties as it requires a great deal of time and extreme care to ensure total accuracy. It is also a fact that some electoral officers will not hand out electoral registers to local parties in advance of the statutory date – 25 March – so collecting hundreds of signatures in a week is almost impossible. (They claim the party nationally has a copy – go away). Having a named candidate is the easiest part; getting through the nomination hurdle is the real anti-democratic factor in many rural areas, particularly those with all-out elections. Sitting Lib Dem and Tory councillors have an unfair advantage with registers provided in advance and existing contacts. Why did the Labour Government keep these handicaps when they registered political labels which should have entitled the Party to say “Bloggs is the Labour candidate” without many hours being wasted in this crazy form filling.
This should stand as a salutory warning to the Party nationally that ignoring and alienating Party members on the ground leaves the Party locally hollowed out and incapable of fighting effectively. Having just moved into a rural Ward, the impact of years of neglect has become blindingly obvious. I doubt we can find more than 2 “paper” candidates to fight 8 vacancies – we have 19 Branch members in 5 scattered Wards and at least 2 of those are in residential care! I hope the present leadership doesn’t make the same mistake in future.
At present there are no Labour Councillors on Wychavon District Council in Worcestershire and only 3 members on the County Council. In this years District elections we shall contest all the Seats in Droitwich and even I who retired from the County Council 5 years ago have been wheeled out to stand for Labour in my ward which is at present a solid Tory Ward. We must make it clear to the Con Dems that Labour is still alive and kicking in the shires!!
Luke, with the exception of three candidates, we have all bases covered in South Glos (all out election). But our problem is less that of candidates and more one of funds to be able to campaign effectively to profit from Lib Dem voter collapse and also put pressure on the Tory vote. I initially put myself forward as a paper candidate in a ward held by the Tories and considered pretty stong, but it is now emerging that Labour taking it is not out of the question (we have taken it before and Kingswood is a swing constituency), and the same goes for several other wards. Although I and fellow candidates are more than willing to put in the time and effort to build an effective campaign and go for victory, there are only enough funds to produce literature etc for the key wards. Hariet Harman has talked about diverting resources to the south from the north, but nothing so far is forthcoming from the top of the party. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/27/labour-harriet-harman-south-poll?INTCMP=SRCH It would be a shame if at the count we see candidates performing well yet falling just short and are left with the regret of if only… As a member of the NEC, if you can be of any help Luke, please do get in touch. PS: Ironic that the Captacha code is “persevere assif”.
Been here, dunnit. You would be surprised how many of your neighbours would support your nomination particularly if you are seen around and about in your local shops, newsagent, pubs etc. One year, and not a particularly good one at that, I got the forms for three candidates signed just by canvassing my own street of eighty odd properties one Saturday. A rock solid Tory ward! The problem is making your electorate aware of your candidacy. See how generous the candidate’s financial restrictions are and see if it is possible to pay for one leaflet to be delivered near to Election Day if you haven’t enough bods on the ground to deliver it.