I was thinking about what I could contribute to the debate this morning in the context of ‘What can local government teach the Labour party?’ and I thought I would take us back to 2006. Ten years ago, at the youthful age of 25, in May 2006, I was a bleary-eyed, newly elected councillor in my home seat of Brixton Hill, here in the glorious and best part of south London, Lambeth. Some of you may be wondering why I am referring back to 2006, but I think in the context of what is happening across with our party and in both local and national government, it is important to draw parallels and look at the lessons learnt.
2006 was a difficult time for our party – we all remember the difficult 2005 general election and the reality that nationally as a party we were no longer popular and had lost support from a considerable amount of the public. But despite the difficult national circumstances, we went on to regain control of the council here in Lambeth from a Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition.
We had a focused message locally in Lambeth – a message about what we were offering Lambeth residents and a clear dividing line between us and the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition currently in control at the town hall. Our manifesto was simple, yet ambitious: We wanted to deliver quality and value for money for Lambeth residents, and tackle in-equality and reduce social exclusion across the borough.
Our priorities were residents’ priorities because we had spent time outside of the town hall listening to their concerns and developing manifesto commitments to demonstrate how we would then follow through and act if elected.
We had a team of candidates that looked like the community we were seeking to represent. In an inner London borough like Lambeth, prior to the 2006 elections only three out of 63 councillors were from a BAME background. And the reality is that when we still have a disconnect between the general public and politicians, it really does matter and make a difference to have a diverse representation of candidates and politicians, not just as a tokenistic gesture, but because it helps us in developing and shaping policies to help serve the whole community in the long run.
For those of you who still remember the old inspection regime of the Audit Commission, Lambeth moved from a one star failing council to three star council excellent council in just under two years demonstrating our determination to change and have a council that strives to serve its residents and to be an exciting organisation for our staff to work in, our staff who are so important in helping us to deliver on our corporate priorities.
If we fast-forward to the 2010 and 2014 local elections across London we have seen real-term cuts to local government funding by 40 per cent, resulting in job losses, reduction in services and unattainable funding gaps. However, instead of retreating to a blame culture and endless protesting, local government is still delivering and leading the way.
Councils have had to transform and develop new ways to deliver services to local residents – and any councillor here or across the country will tell you that as your funding shrinks, the demand for services and expectations from residents grows.
Up and down the country from Oldham to Blackpool, from to Haringey to Southwark, Manchester to Bury we are seeing local government leading the way in continuing to deliver services during this tough financial climate and still winning elections. Our councillors are the backbone to the Labour party, campaigning to help win seats up and down the country –whether its in London with colleagues helping out in by elections, or neighbouring authorities across the country where there are elections every other year.
There is also another area where we see local government leading the way and where we really do need to help the national party. It makes me sad that in matter of weeks the Conservatives will be electing their second female leader and the reality is that Labour is still led by a top team of men – no disrespect to my male colleagues here in the room. We are leading the way in Labour with regards to diverse representation, but by no means should we get complacent. Across Labour Local government we have a range of fantastic female leaders, including here in Lambeth with my colleague Lib Peck, Claire Kober in Haringey who was recently elected as the new chair of London Councils to succeed Jules Pipe, Sarah Hayward in Camden, Sharon Taylor in Stevenage and Jean Stretton in Oldham – just to name a few.
The Tories are also ahead of the game in terms of recognising and valuing the role played by their colleagues in local government, with many local government leaders being recognised in the Queen’s honours list and with peerages. With Labour we had to fight just to get a local government representative seat on the shadow cabinet.
We need to stop local government being treated as an addition and the last group to be consulted as we try to develop an effective opposition and be a government-in-waiting if we are serious about winning the next general election. We demonstrated in Lambeth the difference by having a united team and candidates representative of the community and a clear manifesto outlining what we stand for. If we do this, we can win.
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Check against delivery. From this month’s Governing for Britain conference
Florence Eshalomi is London assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark. She tweets @FloEshalomi
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Photo: Richard Gardner