Unsurprisingly, the area is a Conservative stronghold – the local MP is none other than George Osborne, and the relevant council has just six Labour wards, compared to 59 Tory.
Probably even more unsurprising, the area has long been without a local Labour party. When I turned up to the general election planning meeting, I was greeted in the home of our candidate by a table of six people: four of them from outside of the constituency (helping simply out of personal detest for Osborne), one of them the candidate, and the other myself. Not a great start for holding the second in charge of the Conservative party to account.
The general election came and went, Osborne increased his majority and Labour slipped into third place for the first time since Hazel Blears was the candidate, back in 1987. But it was during the leadership election, when working on the Ed Miliband campaign and with access to membership lists, that I began to contact Labour members in Tatton. And, to my surprise, there were some 200 of them gathering social democratic dust and cobwebs all across Tory heartland. Many of them are elderly (indeed, when trying to locate the CLP chair I found that he was, in fact, dead), but there are also plenty of members whose talents, intelligence and wallets (not to put too fine a point on it) simply haven’t been being utilised.
This May’s council elections pose a real opportunity to put into practice Progress’s no ‘no-go’ areas plan. Tatton has lost almost 8,000 Labour votes here since 1992, so there are real gains to be made. The first step has been to gather candidates. Though we don’t have a candidate for every ward (something achieved in a distant past) we do have them in all the key areas where Liberal Democrats have previously been strong. Last night saw the first meeting of activists since the general election, already having trebled the number of local members present. Much of the work undertaken was to do with the upcoming council elections, but it was also a vital opportunity to converse and begin the process of forming strategy for a newly active constituency Labour party.
Plans are now in place to hold a major meeting during April, with letters and emails being sent out to every local member. The CLP bank account’s £300 is being raided, and we’re issuing Labour leaflets where people will never have seen a Labour leaflet before. What’s more, with a large proportion of members retired, there’s a real chance to build a community base for the party – an effective tool in any semi-rural setting. The local Conservative stranglehold has led to councillors (and an MP) that do the very least for the area. A new Labour party has the chance to show exactly what can be achieved when fair-minded locals work in the best interests of the area, and it’s the Liberal Democrat collapse which has uniquely created the electoral space for Labour to achieve this.
Read about Progress’ Third Place First campaign: no ‘no-go’ areas for Labour
Benjamin, you are to be applauded for taking the fight to areas where frankly Labour has not existed for many a year now. The general election was a painful reminder of what happens when a party’s local base is decimated; Labour polled just 15% in the south west, 16% in the south east and 20% in the eastern region. This, for a party aspiring to be a national party of government, is disastrous. We’ll only be defending 17% of the seats coming up in May, so gains can be expected, and indeed will make the headlines, but for many areas of the country people will be getting a Labour leaflet or a knock on the door from a Labour canvasser for the first time in years – and that’s invaluable.
It’s great that you’re standing as a candidate, Benjamin. Standing for election is as much about putting something in for the Labour movement as it is about getting elected. Either way, you’ll gain a lot of invaluable experience. What Benjamin’s piece shows is how Third Place First should not only be a strategy for the South. Labour in third place is a phenomenon all too familiar to constituencies in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Benjamin’s neighbouring constituencies of Cheadle and Hazel Grove in Stockport – a metropolitan borough just a few miles from the Labour strongholds of Manchester. Benjamin’s post and David’s comment stress the importance not just for having a candidate in every ward, but also to build an activist base strong enough for a *campaign* in every ward. @TimothyJMoore
and here in Kensington and Chelsea the Council pursue the eradication of the Labour ward north of the borough,delivering up salvation to billionaire Sean Mulryan’s Ballymore group ( 225m loss wasn’t it at ’10 Sean?) Aah now we are begining to see how they are redistributing their 500m.capital reserves and the 20m. reduced cost of rebuilding Holland Park School,after selling half the grounds,(to developers of course),they put up the 33m. for Crossrail Station no one here wants,the developers will then plough happily in to sell our neighbourhood to the uber trendy rich and famous and city workers.Bingo,Tory votes. We are being used in the same old way
Benjamin, as a Labour party member can I just say how grateful I am to people like you. You’re exactly the kind of dynamic member this party needs so thank you for your hard work. I absolutely agree with the campaign for no ‘no-go’ areas for Labour. Unfortunately, over the years, we’ve given up on huge swathes of our country, particularly in the South West and let the LibDems in. Hopefully, thanks to people like Benjamin, this is now changing and the fightback begins.
Isn’t one of these elderly members Sir Alex Ferguson?