by David Prescott

So the party’s consulatation on how it operates has drawn to a close.

I know the cyncial among you might think that it was a waste of time. Personally, I think it has been a significant opportunity to help people who genuinely don’t have many ideas on how to restructure the party. This really was blank page politics and the following was my little doodle.

During the last general election, as director of campaigns for go fourth, the campaign for a Labour fourth term, I helped to organise and deliver a key seats tour of the country.

In a hired Ford Transit, financed by small online donations and Unite, we managed to cover 70 marginal seats in those 30 days of the short campaign and 30 more in the long campaign (from January to April).

It gave us a fascinating insight into what worked and what didn’t work in the key seats.

It became very clear, during the course of the tour, that some were far better prepared than others. A good test would be to see how well organized the visit was and how many activists attended.

The better ones would have more than 20 activists and supporters, a good location with strong footfall and journalists lined-up for interviews. The worst ones would let us meander down a street with no clear direction, purpose or media.

But the clearest indicator was the result and swing.

Of the 70 seats we visited, 63 were marginals, of which Labour kept or won 34. And of those 34 that we kept or won, 26 had incumbent candidates. The remaining eight were new PPCs and of them three had been selected for over a year.

But in the lost marginals, we discovered far more new PPCs. 14 were incumbents with the remaining 15 new candidates.

Of these 15 new candidates, ten had only been selected five months before the start of the general election. They lost on an average 7.5% swing against the total marginal average of 3.7% – twice the swing.

It is clear that CLPs that had a high voter ID and contact rate stood a far better chance of staving off the national swing, and in cases such as Oxford East and Liverpool Wavertree, actually saw remarkable swings to Labour.

Constituencies that had an organized group of young Labour activists not only injected dynamism and energy into their campaigns, but also helped to defy swings. Liverpool West Derby and Liverpool Wavertree were examples of youth-driven campaigning.

So it’s within the context of empowering members and improve campaigning that I propose the following to the refounding Labour consultation.

1. Make the candidates sign contracts

Time and again on our tour, we saw established safe seats from 1997 become marginals because party activism dissipated after the original Blair landslide.

This led to some MPs standing down at the last minute and handing over a pitiful inheritance of a low contact rate, minimal campaigning and a shockingly poor level of activism.

So we should ensure all PPCs sign “candidate contracts”.

These contracts will include five-year campaign targets set by the region and CLPs to ensure increasing rates of voter ID, campaign weekends, membership recruitment and training.

If they exceed the targets, the CLPs would receive extra campaign funding, a “carrot” arrangement that, admittedly, already exists.

But if they fail to meet them, there should be a “stick”. And candidates should be expected to explain themselves to an NEC panel, and be given advice and support to improve.

If, however, they consistently fail to meet the agreed targets in their candidate contract, the ultimate sanction should be de-selection and the commencement of the selection procedure to choose a new PPC.

2. Let the CLPs choose the candidate they want

If there is one thing that corrodes the trust of party members it is taking away their right to choose their candidates. In some seats, this person could expect to be the MP for more than 30 years.

We should allow fully-paid up members the right to select the widest range of candidates as possible. But we continue to restrict that choice.

In 1997 24% of Labour MPs were female – the famous Blair babes. But now 82 of the 258 MPs are women – almost a third. The change has been good for politics but it has caused ructions at a local level.

So now one in three Labour MPs are women, let’s have the confidence to say that the time has come to consign all-women shortlists to the past. If we really believe in choice and equality, we should trust our members’ judgement and axe them.

To ensure we stop last minute stand downs in favour of a parachuted “favourite”, successful candidates should be forced to deposit £10,000 into local party funds. If they can’t provide a suitable reason for suddenly deciding to go six months before an election, they should lose that deposit.

And whilst primaries may be all the rage amongst certain “progressives”, it ultimately dilutes members’ influence and say, as it would allow non-members into the electoral college for the leadership election. People who support both proposals ultimately want to bypass the CLPs. But this is the time for strengthening our grassroots, not weakening them.

3. Recruit associate members – but respect full members

The temptation is to cut membership rates. But this only leads to a reduction in revenue rather than an increase in membership. So let’s stop the 1p membership rate for young Labour – it costs about 1000 times more to process each membership and demeans its value to other members.

There are still those who would like to support us but only in the loosest sense. They don’t want to pay £41 a year or become full members. But they would like to feel part of the party.

So encourage these people to join the party as associated members.

For a yearly fee of just £1, associate members will be allowed to join Labour, attend local ward meetings and campaign events. But they would not be given full voting rights so as to protect the importance of full membership.

They could upgrade to take part in choosing their PPC or leader, but could be allowed to vote for deputy leader and the NEC.

To keep the processing costs low they would need to submit a valid email as all communication would be online. They would be able, and actively encouraged, to upgrade at any time to full membership.

But most importantly, it would help build up our email database for donations and campaigning. The Conservatives have half a million email addresses. Labour has around a tenth of that.

4. A stronger young Labour

The best campaigns we saw in the key seats we visisted, had a large infusion of young supporters and activists.

Young Labour should be given more help, support and autonomy to develop the next generation of activists – not just from Labour students, but those in work, on apprenticeships and members of unions.

It’s good to see the party finally recruiting a full-time young Labour officer. It is remarkable we didn’t already have one when we actually pay for three full-time Labour student officers.

All this has done is provide a training route for an office-class of future politicians, at the expense of those who didn’t take the higher education route. This separation is elitist and discriminitary. So let’s scrap Labour students, fold it into young Labour and offer up these paid positions to everyone under 27.

5. Chair or deputy – not both.

Howard Dean’s role as chair of the Democratic National Congress is held up as one of the crucial appointments that led to the party winning back Congress and the White House. Dean’s 50 state strategy saw Democrats compete in normally conservative states with remarkable results. Dean was totally focused on campaigning and rebuilding his party. He had no other distractions

Now more than ever Labour needs a full-time dedicated campaigner and organiser to do what Dean did. This was – and in theory still is – the role of Labour’s deputy leader. The campaigning function could be given to an elected chair, but then you have to question what role a non-campaigning deputy leader is left with other than to become acting leader.

A full-time campaigning deputy with no brief or an elected chair? I think it’s one or the other. Not both.

Thanks to Peter Hain, we’ve had our opportunity to input into restructuring and improving the party.

The big question is how radical do they really want it to be?

David Prescott blogs here.

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Tags: all-woman shortlists, campaign contracts, David Prescott, refounding Labour, young Labour

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