Surrey Heath Councillor Rodney Bates explains why hard work in and on behalf of your local community is the key to doing better in “true blue” areas
Even the name “Surrey Heath” sounds Tory but within these deepest Conservative heartlands, there are a small group of councillors and a growing group of activists who are trying to put forward a positive Labour message. Like many areas, this can be a difficult struggle campaigning against the massive wealth and membership of the local Conservative Association and a well-known MP in Michael Gove. There is also a prominent Lib Dem group who would like nothing more than being the only local opposition and squeezing Labour votes even more.
Surrey Heath has only ever returned Conservative MPs and a Conservative majority council so it would be easy to say that we should write this and similar areas off for Labour and concentrate on more winnable seats in different regions. Indeed, the impression of many members living in the South East would be that the party has done exactly that with little or no campaigning in many areas for many years. For too long, many of our Labour supporters in the South East would have experienced no Labour leaflets through their letterbox, no one knocking on their door from the Labour Party, no local candidate to vote for at elections and no local Labour elected representatives for many miles supporting their issues. If they do pluck up the courage to attend a CLP meeting, they are likely to have found a dwindling CLP meeting complaining about issues of the past. Based on all this, is it really surprising that the Labour vote in the SE was so low in the 2010 general election? In effect, we lost communication and trust even with our own supporters who either sat at home or drifted elsewhere - mainly to the Lib Dems.
It should not be assumed at a national level that these voters will simply return. For many, the coalition policies have yet to impact on the more affluent South East and the party has wrongly allowed the false claim of “clearing up Labour’s mess” to stick. The Conservatives in the South East remain popular amongst many and will do so for some time. This is hardly surprising as they have nurtured a long-term communication with the electorate even in their tough times which we failed to do and they will be trusted for a while longer.
However, the same cannot be said for the Lib Dems who are beginning to suffer badly especially with their broken promises on tuition fees. Labour can certainly benefit from targeting their areas and retaking many of their votes which should be ours anyway.
To rebuild in the South, we firstly need to shake off those years where we have been the forgotten party to many. Until voters see us working in their area, many of them will still not consider voting for us.
The first step is therefore to encourage all of our members to get involved in their local communities by starting up a resident group, Neighbourhood Watch or a campaign group supporting a service that is now at risk. Get involved in a local church or become a school governor, visit the local day centres or volunteer for youth activities. It means putting into practice our values of caring for others less fortunate and becoming known by our supporters and the wider voters as the champions for the local community.
Step two is to open up our Labour meetings and events and make them of wider interest beyond our long standing members. We need to think beyond our own party structures and ask simple questions like “Would a new party member have felt welcome here and understood what we are doing?” I am sure we have all been to a number of tedious procedural meetings discussing internal party matters but how many of those have included proper discussions on topical issues of the day and therefore engaging in the ordinary “pub-chat” of the public?
It is amazing how residents in my ward are more than happy to chat about their favourite X Factor contestant or the plight of their football team but mention politics and many roll their eyes and look bored. Until that is when you mention that the local day centre is closing and their mum will now have to go elsewhere and it’s suddenly a different story – they’re engaged now and want to know what you are doing about it and it becomes another opportunity to spread the Labour message. It means talking to people where they are and not expecting everyone to be interested in the same issues as us.
The final step is then the political one namely to spread our political values out into the wider community. By doing some hard graft in the community and setting up an inclusive environment, we can press forward with both a strong Labour message and candidates backed with the trust and support of the community.
The challenge of us in 2011 and beyond is therefore a hard one as it means going back into areas that we had almost abandoned. The good news is that every party member can play their part and bring the Labour values of fairness and equality into every local community and eventually into our Council chambers.
Cllr Rodney Bates is Leader of the Labour Group on Surrey Heath Borough Council and one of only five Labour councillors in Surrey.
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