Despite Labour being 15 per cent behind the Tories in the polls Labour’s recent by-election victories show that at a grassroots level Labour is clearly electable. They show that local matters, and that a well organised and good campaign fought on clear and simple lines, can reverse a national trend.

All three by-elections give hope to our dwindling poll figures. In Haringey the Liberal Democrats mercilessly exploited the Baby P issue. In Hackney the Greens fought to gain back a seat which was formerly theirs. In Enfield the Tories tried to make a local election a national referendum on the current economic climate, lifting a photo of Rohini with Gordon Brown from facebook and plastering it all over their leaflets.

At 21, Rohini Simbodyal is Enfield Council’s newest and youngest councillor. On Thursday 12 February she achieved a 7.8 per cent swing to Labour to take back a former Tory Council seat in a clear Tory/Labour fight. A similar swing at the general election would see us increase our majority to over 100 seats.

Rohini fought a campaign which resonated with local voters, organising a petition to freeze council tax when Enfield Tories are putting it up at a time of economic hardship.

She also went to the local schools in the area; an electoral advantage that can’t be underestimated. When your former and relatively recent school friend’s face emerges on posters all over the street you’re going to go and vote for them regardless of your political colours or apathy.

But the final and most important ingredient had to be Rohini’s energy and personality. She was the ideal candidate. Bounding round the streets on election day, making sure every contact was personable and engaging. Rohini would cross roads to clearly explain to voters what she wanted to do, and why she wanted to do it, making it that much more likely that the person she was talking to would get to the ballot box and put a cross next to her name.

Rohini’s win is important for Enfield’s political landscape. The council hangs in the balance; marginally Tory with their 34 seats to our 28. With this most recent victory it must surely make Enfield Council a target for Labour to take back.

Enfield Council encompasses the sort of seats that the general election will be won or lost on. Andy Love’s Edmonton is the most electorally solid, followed by Joan Ryan’s Enfield North seat which saw one of the best election results of 2005 due to a relentless personal campaign with all the latest and most effective ways of engaging the local electorate. And none of us will forget the iconic status of Enfield Southgate, where Stephen Twigg unseated Michael Portillo in 1997 and unfortunately where he stood defeated in 2005.

The national lessons from such local victories are clear. Personality and local politics matter. If at the next general election our candidates have deep roots in the areas they represent and understand the local political landscape then they will be the building blocks of a general election victory. And it is clear that newly appointed Councillors Goldberg, Thompson and Simbodyal with the skills that they have acquired in a tough by-election race will be politicians to watch out for in general elections of the future.