Local campaigning is vital – or no seat is safe

Philip Glanville argues that local campaigning is the route to electoral success for Labour.

Following Labour’s losses in Crewe and Glasgow East, barely a day goes by someone or other being accused of plotting. Get any group of activists or wonks together and you’ll hear various ideas to get us out of this mire. Looking back at the successes and failures of the last year, it’s easy to pick out the ‘toffs’ campaign and problems at the top. But what about the deeper, more unsettling questions at the heart of the Labour party’s current problems?

Campaigning in Crewe, I was struck by the lack of long-term organisation. The late, great Gwyneth Dunwoody was a formidable parliamentarian and much-respected MP, but the local party in Crewe seemed moribund at best. Sadly, it was clear that canvassing and campaigning had not taken place for a generation. No historic data, no personal relationships, no record of local campaigning.

In estate after estate, there was no sense that Labour had been talking to local people. We hadn’t fostered a sense that the party was on their side – campaigning for better schools, safer streets and new homes. Ten pence tax and Gordon Brown did not create these problems, they merely exacerbated them.

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