Politics is brutal. In Croydon Central, the tiniest of margins determined that I was not to be a member of parliament. We lost by 165 votes.
We ran a good campaign. Everything we did was positive – whether that was pushing for Croydon to be made Zone 4 or my 24-hour tour of Croydon. We listened to what people had to say. And we had an army of campaigners who talked to 30,000 people in the last three months.
And our message got through. We delivered a 9.1 per cent increase in our share of the vote – getting the highest result since 1997. Nearly 6,000 more people voted Labour – all the more remarkable considering the national picture which unfolded on election day.
Why did we lose? Well, we could have picked up 165 votes in lots of ways – 1,500 people voted Green and 4,700 voted for the United Kingdom Independence party. An independent Tory stood last time and got 3,000 votes. If a few more of them had voted Labour, we would have won.
But that misses the bigger picture. Winning 165 extra votes in Croydon Central would not have won us the country. In 2015, Labour simply did not persuade enough people that we would improve their lives, and we lost the economic argument and the Tories’ fear campaign crystallised more of the wavering vote.
In the rebuilding process as we set about working out how to win 100 seats in 2020, here are three more positive thoughts from Croydon.
First, the Tories now think they have a sweeping mandate. But politics is a comparative sport and we know that David Cameron is only prime minister because more people thought he was less bad. Cameron overpromised to his own core and potential Ukip switchers and now looks set to embark on a more radical rightwing agenda. If we have the right leader, we can take them on and win in 2020.
Second, we lost the air war, we know that, but a lot of our messaging worked – it mobilised our core vote and resonated with many. Labour’s fight for social justice was right and we must not lose that in the wash. We need to reclaim our position as the party of wealth-creation, business and the economy and with the right leader we can do that too.
Third, we unleashed a wave of grassroots enthusiasm. Five hundred people were campaigning in Croydon Central on 7 May, every single one of them an engaged, passionate believer in the Labour movement. We need to make sure our party renews itself in opposition so that we keep our converts and draw in new recruits.
We struck a chord when we talked about the cost of living, because we had listened to what people were saying and articulated how they felt. What we failed to deliver was enough positive vision for the future, one which gave them confidence Labour had the right plan to help them and the competence to deliver it. With a new leader and a platform that speaks to all sections of society we can build on what worked in 2015 to win in 2020.
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Sarah Jones is former parliamentary candidate for Croydon Central
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well said Sarah…………….just like Mitcham & Morden you and Siobhan strongly increased the labour vote in a mixed suburban area showing we can win well outside our heartlands. Labour polls ahead among the young-our future, and among ethnics which will increase. No need to be downhearted and discarding good popular policies.
Jas
You’ll make a brilliant MP xx
Hard luck Sarah. It sounds as if you fought a good campaign. Its not your fault that the electorate can never forgive Brown and Blair. It has to be said though and repeated as often as possible, why should we the electorate forgive them. Brown was probably clinically insane and Blair was a war criminal.
You picked the wrong party. Find another job.