At the last general election, I helped fight on the ground in seats that we had previously won, like Battersea and Bury North. In each of them we were proud of the number of people that were out campaigning, on important days well into the hundreds in all our key seats. Coming back each day we were surprised that we never, never, saw any Tories out. But I always felt a sense of unease: that we were up against something very powerful, even if we couldn’t see it.
Then, someone on one doorstep showed me a ‘personal’ letter from David Cameron. I suggested that it wasn’t personal at all, and it was just another leaflet, mass-printed and sent through the post. They didn’t believe me, because the letter resonated with them. The Tories had used their greater financial resources, and it worked.
This is a problem no Labour campaigner is unaware of. Even if it is found that the Conservatives did, as alleged, misallocate funds to go over the candidate spending limit, the long-term mismatch in our finances is not easy to solve – Labour’s organisers and strategists would have done it by now if it were. But it did start me thinking about how we could be making better use of the asset that we do have in far greater abundance than the Tories: our committed people.
I know it is a cliché, but we really do have fantastic people in the Labour movement, sometimes in ways you might not expect, like the collective commercial savvy I have often found in a room full of fellow Labour business types. We have people who every day lead teams and organisations to greater success; we have entrepreneurs who know how to harness the power of the latest technology; we have branding and communication experts who work with the largest companies and we have recruiters who have built teams for the world’s best organisations. And many of these people are happy to use these skills to help the Labour party.
But there is a problem: the people with the talent do not always know where to go, and the people who could use a bit of extra help do not know what is available. Using the talents of volunteers needs careful managing and expectation-setting on all sides, including around issues such as confidentiality, quality control and ensuring volunteers’ time is respected. And sometimes, of course, people just won’t get on. But none of this should be beyond us, given the massive potential benefits.
So it is to help solve this problem that I have been part of setting up Labour People, the new volunteering network for Labour members who want to lend their skills from the world beyond politics. Our role is simple: while Labour’s HQ and parliamentary staff get on with developing our electoral tactics, organisation and policy proposals, we want to explore the wider talent within the party membership, and deploy it in a way that can make a difference. We vet people’s professional credentials and Labour background, make sure they are prepared for working with political people and organisations, take care of the legal and admin side, such as ensuring they are volunteering in a personal capacity, and act as the ‘dating agency’, putting them in touch with people who could use their help. We have already been able to carry out some valuable projects with members of parliament, peers and Socialist Societies, and I hope that building the strength and confidence of our entire community in this way will also make us more likely to succeed in 2020, and beyond.
Crucially, Labour People is about skills-sharing, and not policy lobbying – routes already exist for that, whereas we think what we offer is unique and overdue. We aim to work with any Labour politician or organisation who would like some training or advice, as long as it does not risk duplicating work that people get paid for, or stepping on to another organisation’s turf. Already in the Labour People network we have one of the UK’s experts on customer targeting; brilliant web and digital specialists; branding and communications professionals who can distil a big vision into a few pithy lines, recruiters with decades of team-building and people management under their belts; a banking expert happy to advise on budgeting and financial management, experienced fundraisers and many more. All are Labour to their core; most have wanted to volunteer for years, with no easy or transparent way of signing up. And with so many new Labour organisations emerging this year who might need a bit of expert guidance on how to run efficiently, we think there is no better time to provide one.
Labour will probably never be able to match the funds and financial resources of the Tories. But winning is not just about your money: it is about your people. In our view, however vital doorknocking and phonebanking are, there is so much more that Labour’s people could be doing too. Labour People is new and still learning, and faces a particular challenge making the case for day-to-day skills in politics at a time when the core business of our party is so noisy and contested. But we have a clear and valuable purpose, and are happy to be joining the Labour family at such an important time.
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Ed Ainsworth is an entrepreneur with a background in building valuable, high-growth businesses. Labour to his core, he is Treasurer of Labour People and has contributed to the party’s Small Business Taskforce. He lives in Brighton
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To apply for the job of network coordinator with Labour People, please see here