Southern Front & Progress launch Fightback Fundraiser kitemark

About the Fightback fundraiser kitemark

Southern Front and Progress are teaming up to enable parliamentary candidates and constituency parties in the south to get the vital funds they need to help return a Labour government in 2015 and make the Tories the first single-term administration in three decades.

We are asking those who are organising Labour fundraisers to donate either at least £2 per ticket, the money from a raffle or an auction prize to a seat where we have selected our candidate early or a target seat in the three southern regions:  the south-east, south-west and east of England. In return, you will be awarded our ‘fightback fundraiser’ kitemark.

How does it work?
It is simple. When an MP, party group or individual is raising money they need to follow these three simple steps:

1.      Choose an early selected PPC or marginal seat in the southern regions that you want to help

2.      Decide whether to donate either at least £2 per ticket, the money from a raffle or an auction prize to the PPC/seat of your choice

3.      Email Progress (office@progressonline.org.uk) or Southern Front (sking1970[at]btinternet.com) to get sent the kitemark and start promoting your event.

We will then help you advertise the event through our daily email bulletins, website and twitter.

Supporters of the  ‘Fightback fundraiser kitemark’:

Andy Sawford, PPC  for Corby and East Northamptonshire
‘Our fightback in marginal Corby and East Northamptonshire is well underway but we need more help and resources.  This is a brilliant initiative by Southern Front and Progress and it could make all the difference for Labour at the next election. Thank you to all the members and CLPs who support the fightback through a fundraiser.’

 Lucy Rigby, PPC for Lincoln
‘If Labour wins Lincoln, we have a parliamentary majority – we must win seats like mine. The fightback fundraiser scheme is an effective way of ensuring support gets to where it’s needed most: the seats we must win if we are to deliver a Labour government. Thanks in advance for your support.’

Sarah Owen, PPC for Hastings & Rye
‘Winning seats like Hastings & Rye in the South is vital to seeing another Labour government and making these the one-term Tories that they should be.  Our local Labour Party work hard campaigning throughout the year, but with limited funds we find more and more energy is being spent on fundraising than where it really matters: on the doorstep.  Helping marginal areas like ours goes much further than just benefiting any individual seat, because once we return a Labour government we can start delivering the change that we all need to see.’

Andrew Pakes, PPC for Milton Keynes South
‘The road to Downing Street runs straight through the M1 belt which contains our key target seats, like in Milton Keynes. If we want to put our ideas into practice then winning in the south is critical to Labour’s future success. This is an excellent initiative from Progress and Southern Front. We need to rebuild our party from the grassroots up and I hope that many CLPs, Labour groups and activists will get involved in this great new scheme who support the fightback and get funds into marginal seats.’

David Ellesmere, PPC for Ipswich ‘In 2010 we were outgunned by the cash pouring into Ipswich from the Ashcroft millions. This initiative can help us level the playing field and ensure we have a Labour MP in Ipswich and a Labour government in 2015.’

Clive Lewis, PPC for Norwich South
‘It’s imaginative ideas like the kite mark initiative that are going to make the difference between having a Labour government or not in 2015. Marginals like Norwich South face a constant dilemma: save for the short campaign or spend now on building up our community campaigns and local presence. Fundraising is therefore crucial. The kitemark will be a major boost.’

Cllr Joy Squires, PPC for Worcester
My early selection here in Worcester really motivated members and supporters and we had a fantastic local election campaign and the best results for many years. But to sustain the momentum we need more resources, so that we can take the Tories on right across the constituency.’

Frequently asked questions about the  ‘Fightback fundraiser kitemark’:

Who will the fundraiser help?

Seats we have selected early: Thurrock, Norwich South, Waveney, Stevenage, Harlow, Hastings & Rye, Milton Keynes South, Stroud, South Swindon

Seats where selections currently under way: Dover & Deal, Bedford, Norwich North, Chatham & Aylesford, North Swindon

Other top 100 key marginals: Norwich North, Peterborough, South Basildon & East Thurrock, Great Yarmouth, Hove, Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown, Crawley, Reading West, Chatham & Aylesford, Kingswood, Plymouth Sutton & Devonport, Gloucester, North East Somerset

Does the money go through Progress or Southern Front?
No. All of the money raised at an event is sent directly to a marginal CLP of the fundraiser’s choice.

Why are only the southern regions benefiting?
They aren’t – early selected PPCs are an important part of the scheme and they include candidates in the west Midlands, east Midlands and soon the north-east.

But we also need to recognise that the three southern regions are underrepresented by Labour MPs, and the fundraising opportunities are sparse. Our biggest gains in the 2012 local elections were areas where we have a sitting Labour MP or one nearby. By supporting PPCs in southern seats, incumbent MPs are part of the vital efforts to set Labour on the path to government.

What is the state of the party in the south?
The Labour party currently has just 10 MPs across the south of England, out of a possible 197. We lost 35 seats in the three southern regions – the south-east, the south-west and the east of England. The party needs to make considerable gains here to be back in government.

How do we know the money is going to the correct seats?
By working with both the fundraiser and the recipient, Progress and Southern Front will ensure that the money will go directly to where it's intended.

Don’t southern seats have more money anyway?
Each seat has different amounts of money. They key is getting resources to marginal seats and making Labour gains at the next general election. The Fightback Fundraiser kitemark rests on the idea that our incumbent MPs are our best fundraisers. If they can help early selected candidates and seats in the south we will be nearer to returning a Labour government again.

What benefit does the fundraiser get?
Those raising funds for seats in the three regions can be sure that they are offering practical help to PPC campaigns ahead of the next election. Donating to the Fightback Fund is a chance to show commitment to winning back the south at the 2015 general election, and as such each fundraiser will be awarded the ‘Fightback Fundraiser’ kitemark. You'll also get Progress' help in promoting your fundraiser through our daily email and social media presence.

How do increased funds help?
Money doesn’t win elections, activists do. Our activists do incredibly hard work on the ground, even in the seats which we don’t always win. But one of the biggest obstacles to getting the Labour message out in marginals is lack of resources during election campaigns – and we can’t always compete with Tory money. The money raised through the Fightback Fundraiser scheme, which could be a couple of hundreds of pounds or more, will help us start to level the playing field.

Police Commissioner candidates

Ballot papers will soon be dropping onto the doormats of Labour members across the country, as the party seeks to select its candidates for November’s Police & Crime Commissioner elections.  20 candidates are seeking your support in the ten contested elections (the selections in Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Dorset and Wiltshire are uncontested).

EASTERN REGION

BEDFORDHIRE

Oliver Martins (@OllyMartins)

Labour activist from Luton.

Adrian Heffernan

Former county councillor & former Chair of the Bedfordshire Police Authority

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Ruth Rogers

Currently an Independent member and Chair of Cambridgeshire Police Authority

Ed Murphy

2010 Parliamentary candidate in Peterborough

ESSEX

Val Morris Cook (@ValMorrisCook)

Deputy Leader of Thurrock council

Jordan Newell (@Jordannewell)
Chair of Colchester CLP

HERTFORDSHIRE

Sherma Batson (@Shermabats)

Stevenage councillor.

This selection is uncontested and Sherma is Labour’s candidate.

NORFOLK

Steve Morphew (@SteveMorphew)

Former Leader of Norwich council

Stephen Burke (@StephenBBurke)

Former Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham council

SUFFOLK

Jane Basham (@Jane_Basham)

Former Chief Executive of Ipswich & Suffolk Council Racial Equality

This selection is uncontested and Jane is Labour’s candidate.

SOUTH EASTERN REGION

HAMPSHIRE

Jacqui Rayment

Southampton cllr & Mbr of Hants PA  jacwee67

Alan Hagger

Winchester Labour activist

KENT

Harriet Yeo (@KentPCC)

President TSSA & Ashford councillor

Steve Bates
Former SPAD to John Reid and ex Labour Party staffer

SURREY

Robert Evans (@RobertJEEvans)

former MEP, 1994-2009

This selection is uncontested and Robert is Labour’s candidate.

SUSSEX

Paul Richards (@Labourpaul)

Former SPAD to Hazel Blears & Progress columnist

Godfrey Daniel

Hastings Councillor

THAMES VALLEY

Jon Harvey (@JonSHarvey)

Buckingham Town councillor 

Tim Starkey

LD defector; PPC Chesham & Amersham 2010

AVON & SOMERSET

Bob Ashford (@BobAshford1)

Former official at Youth Justice Board

John Savage

Chairman of the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation

DEVON & CORNWALL

Patrick Canavan (@Patsindevon)

Candidate for Torbay Directly Elected Mayor, 2011

Nicky Williams (@Nickyjwilliams)

Plymouth City councillor

DORSET

Rachel Rogers (@DorsetRachel)

Weymouth & Portland councillor

This selection is uncontested and Rachel is Labour’s candidate.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Rupi Dhanda (@RupiDhanda)

Solicitor & Labour activist in Gloucester

This selection is uncontested and Rupi is Labour’s candidate.

WILTSHIRE

Clare Moody (@ClareMMoody)

Unite official & Salisbury Labour activist

This selection is uncontested and Clare is Labour’s candidate.

Chronic discomfort – where is the southern revival?

Labour probably experienced a southern discomfort well before 1992, but it was after that year’s general election that the Fabians published the first of a series of pamphlets authored by the then Labour MP, Giles (now Lord) Radice.  Twenty years on and while the fortunes of the party in the south have ebbed and flowed, the tide was definitely out by the time of the 2010 election, when just ten Labour MPs were elected to represent southern constituencies.

At its 2012 annual conference, Progress assembled an extremely experienced and well qualified panel to discuss the symptoms and causes of Labour’s current southern discomfort.  John Denham MP has always been a voice to be listened to in these debates; he was joined on the panel by one former and one would-be parliamentary colleague –Joan Ryan (erstwhile MP for Enfield North) and Councillor Sharon Taylor (parliamentary candidate for the town in 2010 & 2015) respectively.  The pollster Bobby Duffy of Ipsos Mori, completed the panel.

John Denham opened the debate with a somewhat counter intuitive (but nonetheless accurate) proposition: that the “Southern Voter” is a myth.  The values of southern voters aren’t really that different to the values held by voters in the Midlands, the North and elsewhere in the UK.  The coalition Labour brought together in 1997, and the one it needs to recreate in 2015, just needs to be broader and deeper in the south. 

As the Labour leader of Stevenage Council, Sharon Taylor’s contribution was a reminder to the audience of the important role that Labour councils and councillors can play in swing and bellweather seats.  Even as Labour saw the Conservatives snatch the parliamentary seat from them in 2010, the party continued to use its control of the council to demonstrate how Labour values in action can still help those struggling to cope with the effects of the recession.

Joan Ryan recognised that the recent local election results were good for Labour generally, and very good for Labour in the south. But she offered a note of caution when she suggested that the party was still behind where it was in the polls when compared with a similar period in the nineties.  She counselled against focusing too much political ammunition on the Liberal Democrats as Labour is the second place challenger in only nine of the junior coalition partner’s 57 seats.  To win again, Labour needed to focus its energies against the Conservatives.

Ryan suggested that the principal outcome of the local elections had been that Labour had won the right to be heard again: “People are willing to listen to us again”.  Echoing Denham’s theme, the next step she argued was to start talking about the issues that matter to the voters, not just to us as political activists (Lords reform, anyone?).  The way to make this happen was to better connect policy making with campaigning.  What we learn about the voters’ priorities when we speak to them on the doorstep should be fed into the policy making process.  Policy making should no longer be the preserve of party elites: “policy making is for the many, not the few”, as she put it.

Bobby Duffy’s contribution was to alert us to the prize available to Labour.  The local election results were the electoral manifestation of what the polls have been telling us, that David Cameron, George Osborne and the coalition government in general are all experiencing their lowest satisfaction ratings to date.  Even more interestingly, the polls showed a significant decline in the percentage of voters who understood what the Conservatives stand for.  The Conservative party of the south is vulnerable if Labour can articulate and demonstrate how its values place it “on the side” of southern voters.

With an audience that included Caroline Flint MP, the shadow cabinet’s champion for the south east, a number of leading parliamentary candidates from the region and activists from Guildford, Brighton, Canterbury, Thurrock and the New Forest, when the debate opened up we were guaranteed some very useful insights and lessons from right across the Political South. 

The session ended well as we returned to the need to demonstrate how our values could be better articulated and applied in the south.  Labour, it was suggested, should talk more about the importance of responsibility and rather less about fairness.  Voters rail against irresponsibility just as much as they do against unfairness: whether it is the irresponsibility of bankers; the irresponsibility of those capable of work but who choose not to; or the irresponsibility of politicians who engage in the wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money.  Labour’s responsibility is to demonstrate that we understand this.

Stuart King is Editor of Southern Front and chaired the "Chronic Discomfort" session at the 2012 Progress annual conference. This article was also published on Progress Online.

Third Place First with Caroline Flint MP

Join the inaugural Third Place First Conference with shadow cabinet member, Caroline Flint MP, in Reading on the 23 June 2012.

Last year Progress recreated the Third Place First network which last operated back in the 1990s. Following a launch event last year and some regional activity, the network is now hosting its first conference, which Southern Front is pleased to be supporting. Tickets are £5 for Progress members, £30 for non-members. Join Progress now to attend for free.

You can find out more about the Third Place First Network at: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/3p1conf2012

The day offers a packed schedule of dynamic debate about how Labour fights back in local government in the south, wins back important Westminster seats and increases our share of the popular vote. Speakers include Caroline Flint MP, Iain McNicol (general secretary, Labour party) and partner organisations including Movement for Change, Policy Network, UNISON and Labour List.  Southern Front editor, Stuart King, is also speaking at the event.

Book your tickets now: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/3p1conf2012

Chronic discomfort: Where is the southern revival?

Southern Front is delighted to have been asked to chair a session at this year's Progress Annual Conference. The session, entitled "Chronic discomfort: Where is the southern revival?" features four extremely well qualified panelists, so we can expect an informed and insightful debate. The panelists are:

John Denham, PPS to Ed Miliband & MP for Southampton Itchen
Joan Ryan, former MP for Enfield North
Cllr Sharon Taylor, Leader of Stevenage Council & PPC for Stevenage
Bobby Duffy, Managing Director, Ipsos Mori Social Research Institute

The Chronic discomfort session takes place at 1430-1545. The full agenda for the conference can be viewed here. If you havent already booked a place at the conference then you can do so here.

We hope to see you on Saturday at #pac12

A little less Southern Discomfort

Ken Livingstone’s defeat in London aside, last week’s elections represented a good night for UK Labour and a great night for Labour in the South.

Southern Front’s pre-election review highlighted ten local authorities where Labour needed to either win or make significant gains.  In all Labour retook eight of those ten, and although they missed out in Cambridge (somewhat of a long shot chance of a gain in any case) they made sufficient gains in the city to deny the Liberal Democrats outright control of one of their flagship councils. 

In 2011, Ed Miliband’s only option to attend an election victory rally in the south was Gravesham; last Friday his itinery planners had eight options to consider.  In the end he travelled to Southampton, where Labour scored its most spectacular result – 11 gains sweeping the party into power there for the first time since 2000.   But right across the political south – from Plymouth and Exeter through Southampton, Reading, Harlow and Thurrock, and then out to Great Yarmouth and Norwich, Labour took back control of councils that are home to some of the crucial marginal parliamentary constituencies that will determine whether Labour return to Government in 2015.

Labour emerged from the second set of elections to take place since the general election in a much stronger position than it found itself after its first post-2010 contest.  The 800+ new Labour councillors provide the party with an invigorated and strengthened activist base, supporting at local level the party’s national campaign against the coalition.  The corollary of course is that there are also now 800+ fewer Coalition councillors working against us in constituencies up and down the country.

But the scale of Labour’s victory – impressive though these gains are – isn’t the real story.  What is so important about last week’s election results is not just that our gains were made at the expense of BOTH our opponents, but that the overwhelming majority of those gains came directly from the Conservatives.

Analysis of the results in the eight councils we won control of in the south, which are home to eight marginal parliamentary seats, shows that we gained those victories by winning 35 council seats from the Conservatives and 13 from the Liberal Democrats.   In Southampton the party made ten gains at the hands of the Conservatives; in Plymouth and Great Yarmouth they took 6 and 4 seats respectively.  In Exeter, Southampton, Reading, Harlow and Norwich Labour took seats from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Looking beyond the outcome in the councils that play host to key marginal parliamentary seats, Labour can also take heart from some good results elsewhere in the south.  Gains in Rushmoor, Basingstoke & Deane and North Herts – none of which contain parliamentary seats Labour has held recently - were all signs of a healthy and growing party.  Newly elected Labour councillors in Adur and Maidstone have reduced by two the number of councils that do not have a Labour councillor sitting on them.  Labour is beginning to win again in some of the places that stopped voting for us in the years of Government that followed 1997.

If 2012 displayed a marked improvement in Labour’s electoral performance, the Conservatives enjoyed the exact opposite.  Having fared well twelve months ago, principally at the expenses of haemorrhaging Liberal Democrat support in the south west and an underperforming Labour party, this year the Conservatives took a hammering.  Not only did they come off second best in most of the key contests against Labour, they also found themselves struggling to beat their coalition partners in contests ion parts of the country where Labour continues to be weak.  The Conservatives failed to make the headway they sought in Eastleigh (home council of former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Chris Huhne MP) and in Portsmouth they lost seats to their junior partner. 

The scale of the party’s victory in Southampton deserved the recognition of a congratulatory visit by the Leader of the Party. But it was his other destination in the first 24 hours after the elections – Worcester– that demonstrated his appreciation of the limitations of the progress made thus far. 

In Worcester, although we made 3 gains from the Conservatives which cost them control of the council, we didn’t make sufficient gains to take outright control or even to become the largest party.  Worcester of course isn’t in the south; but it mirrors other southern seats that Labour has fallen back in over the past decade.  He could just as easily have visited Watford, St Albans or Portsmouth. 

Ed Miliband’s post election reaction struck the right balance by congratulating the party but warning against triumphalism or the assumption that a good set of results in 2012 will automatically be replicated the next time country goes to the polls. As he said after the scale of Labour’s victory last week became clear: "I know we have more work to do to show we can change our country so that it works for you, for your sons and daughters who are looking for a job, for families feeling a squeeze in living standards, for everybody rather than just a few at the top”.  

That’s the right message.  Last week proved to be a great night for Labour in the South, but Labour’s southern discomfort although alleviated, isn’t over just yet.

Local election review: Southampton

Southampton

Con 25, Lab 19, Lib Dem 2 Vac 2

In our final election review, we turn our attentions to Southampton.  The city has proved to be a red island in a southern sea of Conservative blue over the decades.  John Denham’s election in Southampton Itchen in 1992 made him one of only a handful of Labour MPs in the South at the time.

However the party suffered a scare in 2010 when the erstwhile Cabinet minister came within 192 votes of defeat.  In all probability, Denham’s decades of local service as a councillor and then MP is probably responsible for the party retaining the seat.  His retirement at the next election ensures that this super marginal seat will be the subject of a mighty tussle between Labour and the Conservatives.

When Labour last fought these seats in 2008 the party had a disastrous night, winning just two of the sixteen seats being elected. The Conservatives made seven gains that night.  Labour has improved its position in the two local elections since then and now stands just five seats short of taking back control for the first time since 2000.  That is fortuitous as there are five target wards for Labour in all of which the party has two of the three sitting councillors – Bargate, Coxford, Millbrook, Peartree and Redbridge.  When these wards were last contested a year ago, Labour polled wildly varying margins of victory, with a majority of nearly 900 in Coxford, but only a slender 87 in Peartree. 

Labour is competitive in a number of other seats.  In 2011 Labour made gains in Sholing and Shirley, electing Labour councillors in these wards for the first time since 2006 and 1998 respectively. Both gains were made with small three figure majorities, so the election of a second Labour councillor in each ward cannot be taken for granted.  But it is success in either or both of these wards that could be the gains that take Labour through the winning line and hand control of the council back to the party.

In the course of the past decade the Liberal Democrats have gone from being the largest party on the council with 18 seats to its smallest, with just two.  It is only the fact that neither of their councillors faces re-election this year, that they can be assured of a continued presence on the council.  There only interest in tomorrow’s elections is in Portswood, which appears to be a three-way marginal.

The advances the party has made locally in the past four years very clearly put them on course to regain control of the council, but these results suggest that nothing should be taken for granted.  The campaign locally – supported by the city’s two Labour MPs and numerous frontbench visits – demonstrates a party determined to win, but anything but complacent in its approach.

Local election review: Harlow

Harlow

Con 17, Lab 15, Vac 1

Labour in Harlow is looking to build on the success of 2011’s local elections when the party made a number of gains winning 7 of the 11 contests in that year, and only just missing out on taking control of the council.  With just two gains required to take control back for the first time since 2002, Labour should feel quietly optimistic, given they are only defending two of the twelve seats being contested (both in Bush Fair, where there is an additional vacancy following the resignation of a Labour councillor).

There are six target wards for Labour in all of which the party has two of the three sitting councillors – Harlow Common, Little Parndon & Hare Street, Mark Hall, Netteswell, Staple Tye & Todbrook.  In 2011 Labour scored margins of victory in these wards ranging from 120 in Todbrook to 550 in Little Parndon & Hare Street. The party will be taking nothing for granted but the enthusiasm and momentum generated by the successes of 2011, coupled with the selection of an energetic and motivating new PPC, Suzy Stride, should see Labour make the gains it needs from these seats alone.

A really bad night for the Conservatives, could see them lose seats in wards which currently return three Conservative councillors.  Three wards are most at risk: Old Harlow, where Labour came within 320 votes of victory last year, Great Parndon  where the gap is 240 and Sumners & Kingsmoor, where a shaky 120 vote margin saw the re-election of a Conservative candidate.  A Labour gain in one of these wards really will have the party popping the champagne corks.

The decline of the Liberal Democrats in Harlow has been considerable.  Ten years ago the party made its big breakthrough when it took advantage of an election in which the whole council was up for election (due to a reduction in the number of councillors following boundary changes).  It emerged with 12 seats (the same as the Conservatives) as Labour lost 16 councillors and became the third party on the council with a group of just nine.  Following 2011’s elections there were just two Liberal Democrat councillors left, and a death and defection means the minor party of the coalition enter the elections without any councillors.  They look likely to remain unrepresented on the council after this week’s elections.

For much of the Blair/Brown administration Harlow was a marginal parliamentary seat, retained by Bill Rammell by a wafer thin 97 votes in 2005.  It was the Conservatives’ target seat number five in 2010 and Robert Halfon took the seat for them securing a majority of just under 5,000 on a 6% swing.  The early selection of Suzy Stride as Labour’s candidate is a clear sign that the party is intent on regaining this seat.  Retaking control of the council for the first time in ten years will be a huge boost to the party’s prospects in this regard.