by John Braggins
The voters of Eastleigh – an old railway town just outside Southampton – lost their MP, Stephen Milligan in unfortunate circumstances on February 7th 1994. A Tory with promise ahead of him came to a tragic end, and was found wrapped in a bin bag after accidentally suffocating himself in an apparently solitary sexual episode.
Fast forward 20 years and an another MP, Chris Huhne, this time a LibDem, was on a fast-track to high political office only to find he was travelling too fast, eventually ending his career in an equally bizarre manner, only far less tragic this time.
So the voters of Eastleigh will yet again face battalions of LibDem Focus leafleters, legions of Tory In Touch deliverers and car loads of Labour Rose activists spreading out across the wastelands of Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh Town and Hedge End.
In 1994, along with my colleague Alan Barnard, I was asked by Labour’s elections supremo, Jack Cunningham, to take charge of Labour’s campaign for the forthcoming by-election. Our remit was to avoid the traditional by-election squeeze on our vote and avoid losing our deposit. We were tasked with finding a way to take the fight to the Lib Dems and to encourage Labour voters to stay with us.
The Eastleigh by-election of 1994 was a turning point for Labour, coming as it did after two by-elections in ‘the south’ – Christchurch and Newbury where Labour’s vote was squeezed almost out of existence. Labour was unlikely to win Eastleigh but increasing its share of the vote and coming ahead of the Tory was seen by Labour’s shadow cabinet as one of the most important by-election objectives in the run-up to the 1997 general election, showing, as it did, Labour could increase its vote in the vital southern key seats.
Straight after the by-election result, when Labour had come second in what at the time was one of only six by-elections since the Second World War to have a swing from Tory to Labour, the recently elected leader Tony Blair was able to say “There are no no-go areas for new Labour.”
In his analysis column for the Daily Telegraph on the Saturday after polling day, Professor Anthony King wrote under the headline “The real winners came second at Eastleigh”. He said “The big news from the by-election …… is that Labour is now back, constituting a real electoral threat to the Tories for the first time since 1979″ and “Such an outcome in a general election would sweep Labour to power.”
And now, the new by-election needs to be treated with equal importance. Once again Labour faces a massive squeeze between the Lib Dems that hold almost all the council seats and the traditional Tory machine, that desperately wants this seat back and who have been organising in the seat for many weeks now.
There are a number of lessons that Alan and I learnt back then that are just as important in the digital electioneering age of 2013 and we happily pass them on to Labour new by-election warriors:
1. Be confident
Eastleigh is there to be won. Make no mistake: a campaign that doesn’t believe it can win deserves to lose. Eastleigh was once a Labour town but lost the habit of voting Labour. That confidence had to be given to the party members back then, and it is exactly the same now.
2. Plan ahead
Plan for the county elections in May; Labour did badly in 2009 with the party in the doldrums at the tail end of the Brown government. Now with the coalition partners falling out at Westminster and soon to be at each other’s throat in Eastleigh, this represents a major opportunity for Labour. Nothing invigorates the membership like fighting elections and the county elections are the best possible building block for this by-election.
3. Communicate the message
Alan Barnard and I ran the early part of the campaign simply to engage with our voters and to start communicating Labour messages – something that, with one or two exceptions, had not been done in Eastleigh for years before. The party had stopped communicating, leaving a vacuum for the Lib Dems to fill. Before we could grow our support, we had to give confidence to our own side – and that included the members.
4. Be visible to give confidence
In 1994 it was only the doorstep, leaflets and phones, now it’s computers, mobile phones, ipads, twitter, facebook and emails. They are all, as Alan Barnard writes in his book ‘Campaign It!’, just useful additional channels to be used to communicate a message. What is most important is for voters to see Labour people out and about in their communities working hard; to see posters in windows and in gardens and then followed with phone calls, emails, texts, tweets, to deliver the politics and messaging of our campaign.
5. Be everywhere
The research I conducted immediately after the ’94 by-election proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the one thing that impacted on voters most in Eastleigh was meeting the candidate – face-to-face. The candidate has to be out on the doorstep, in the high street, shopping centres, at school gates, in the market meeting and greeting people. There should be ‘no hiding place’ from Labour and our candidate should be set a target for the number of hands he/she should shake during the by-election – 5,000 would be a good target to achieve.
6. Be nimble
Know what the Tories and LibDems are doing and make sure Labour is there. The then Lib Dem leader, Paddy Ashdown, was outwitted on his first campaign visit by Labour blitzing the streets and estates he was being taken around, on his last he was outwitted by a Labour phone-bank of just six people who rang every Labour promise in the area he was visiting to remind them of the local Lib Dems failures and of our message.
7. Have fun.
In our 20 week campaign we had the most we could have with our clothes on. That fun was infectious and spread through the campaign team and quickly turned supporters into activists and activists into members. All by-elections seek the ‘big mo’ the trick of a good campaign is having developed momentum, to then build it into a winning coalition of voters.
John Braggins worked for the Labour Party for 37 years. He was the first head-office staff member to take charge of by-elections for the party, running all by-elections for the party between 1988 and 2001. Now he and his by-election sidekick, Alan Barnard, run their own company, bbm campaigns.
Tags: Alan Barnard, bbm, Chris Huhne, Eastleigh by-election, John Braggins, Stephen Milligan
Increasing one’s vote in 1997 was not hard it was almost impossible not to, sadly increasing one’s vote now with people really about as interest in politics as I am in golf.
If I lived in the area I think to show my anger at all parties including labour I would go for UKIP.
I do not think any party has any real idea or any way forward it’s all hope that the country picks it’s self up and saves us.
I think the winner will be the Liberals and I think Labour may well come second with UKIP and the Tories close third, but you never know.
Apathy may well change it all.
Good piece reminding us of lessons learnt with one proviso. Social media is about dialogue and not one way communication of the message. Have to engage to get the vote
Good article
The May County Council elections are fewer than 100 days away
THURSDAY 2nd MAY 2013
Really need to get going to ensure we hit the Tory Barons at County Hall
Vital that everyone helps secure best possible results in the County Council Elections
Remember
Those hardest hit by the benefits cap are RURAL working families !
Please support “Progressives” fighting in the County Council Elections
Mike
Country Standard
Robert; You can’t have studied too much about politics if on a Labour website you are advocating voting UKIP. take away their anti-Eropean, isolationist policies, and examine their domestic poicies,you will find that they are more rightwing than the Tories ever could be, Farage and the one or two spokespeople they have say Cameron and Osborne haven’t gone far enough. Somehow don’t think Farage dare not contest this by-election, it’s next door to his own backyard, too much face to lose if he ducks this one.
I am an Eastleigh voter who rejoined Labour after the 2010 general election.
I spoiled my ballot paper rather than support a Labour candidate who supported academy schools (the only thing I managed to find out).
My ex, always solid Labour, fell for the LibDem propaganda and voted for them to keep the Tory out (sick joke, eh?).
Her mum and sister originally from the W Midlands now living in Hedge End, traditonal Labour voters, voted for the English Democrats, (and probably would’ve voted BNP if standing), because Labour has betrayed the working class.
My youngest missed being able to vote by 3 days – probably Labour.
Her 2 half sisters in the borough – one voted Labour, the other probably LibDem.
The point? The situation is extremely fluid. Galloway showed that. A decent candidate will make all the difference, but needs to be radical.
And for my money, although the LibDems do well locally, the national vote may well collapse.
And give growing hatred of the Tories, this contest is wide open for Labour…..
It’s going to be a fascinating campaign. The Lib Dems are finished, the Tories are failing on the economy and no one knows what Ed/Labour stand for – there is no message coming from Labour.
Farage has to be in with a good chance if he stands – he will most likely be the biggest name in contest, has a clearly stated political purpose, is extremely personable and will take votes from disillusioned Tories, leaderless Labourites and win the votes of the significant ‘anti-politician’ contingent.
I am also an Eastleigh Constituent and since 1994 have voted tactically to make sure that the Conservatives didn’t win the seat. After 2010’s fiasco I am reverting back to supporting Labour. The thought that I voted LibDem really makes me feel quite sick. I think people here still do not associate the LibDems with the Tories. The LibDems have as much responsibility for the harsh policies coming out of Whitehall, as the Tories do.
I would never vote UKIP. Their policies are shocking. I like my employment rights thank you very much!
Hopefully there are lots of ex-tactical voters in the Borough, just like me. All I ask is that Labour make the effort and come to Eastleigh, canvas in earnest and hopefully get a good result.
I’d agree with Robert. Eastleigh must be fed up to the back teeth with the lot of them from Westminster Tories Lib Dems and I regret to say Labour. So it’ll be a UKIP victory, not because they particularly like UKIP but because voters will want to send a strong message to Westminster that if they don’t get out of their comfort zone pretty quick and into the real world we’ll send the lot of you packing.
It will be a strange by-election with the first and second placed parties in a coalition. which means that it will make very little difference which one wins. Voting Labour is the obvious way to vote if you don’t like this government, so it could get very interesting if UKIP takes votes off the Tories.
If I lived in Eastleigh, I would vote Lib Dem in a General Election to beat the Tory but I would vote Labour in the byelection.
Absolutely right!
We should be fighting all out in Eastleigh and start taking back the votes that have drifted to the LibDems over the past 20 years.
Both coalition parties are walking disasters and there’s no reason why Labour shouldn’t do well here.