Labour’s Election Campaign; telling candidates what to do
JVL Introduction
Perspectives on the 2024 General Election (21)
The Labour Party now wants everything controlled by the centre; arguably some central co-ordination makes some sense, to put the energies of Party members (such as they are) into the most important areas to canvass. However, this has led to candidates being denied access to canvassing software, for example if they focus too much on their own rather than designated constituencies. There are even examples of candidates being told not to print more leaflets for their own constituencies, sometimes even when they are in a neck-and-neck fight but instead “ordered to go to a twinned target seat”. Understandably some candidates and Party activists are unhappy with the amount of centralised control and even worry that Labour voters in “safe” seats are being taken for granted,
Added to this the reduction in the number of Party activists – noting that the Party has lost almost 200,000 members since the Corbyn era – the pressure on Party members is perhaps greater than ever. Canvassing can be an opportunity to win people to your point of view and enthuse supporters to become activists, even in areas where a win is unlikely. Elections can be an opportunity for movement building but this does not seem to be part of the “changed Labour Party” is about.
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Fri 21 Jun 2024. Read the original here.
Labour candidates penalised for not campaigning enough in battleground seats
Some campaigners lose access to key party software if deemed not to be canvassing hard enough in other target areas
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What a cock-up, pardon my English. Their strategy just shows how little they know about campaigning, team building, volunteering and real life issues. To expect people to canvass elsewhere and incur expenses is unfair. Maybe the volunteers (members) need to badger ms Reeves mark 2 for expenses to be paid. Volunteers should not be out of pocket!
Withholding access to neccessary software is in my book something akin to an act of sabotage. Never mind how despondent and deflated volunteers (members) feel, that is of no interest to the party once known as Labour. Their only interest is to get all those bots elected who they parachuted into constituencies. Maybe members (volunteers) need to down Tools.
It’s all part of their strategy to ensure that when Starner falls flat in his face, there won’t be enough socialist MPs to put up a candidate
The following is an (unpublished) letter I offered to the Guardian following seeing it on their website.
With a mixture of fury and sadness I read “Labour candidates penalised for not campaigning enough in battleground seats” (Aletha Adu, Jessica Elgot and Eleni Courea, 21 June). I and many on the left of the Labour party have known the basis of the ‘revelation’ from even a cursory glance at the runes since 2020. The control imposed by the “new management” is stultifying to the extent that my conscience won’t allow me to help at this election in any way. As someone who has represented Labour in all District elections bar the last one since the mid 80s, along with most County elections, this enforced decision hurts. The denied, yet blindingly obvious left-wing cull is an example of the blinkered, ethics-abandoned drive for power which brooks no dissent or deviation from ‘the one true path’, which should find no home in a democratic party. Yes, get rid of this unspeakable government, but that laudable aim will be better for the country to be achieved by a Labour party run on lines of decency, honesty and tolerance in keeping with what someone once said: “I will unite the party”.