by Sarah Jones
Last week, hard work and better tactics led the Labour party to election victory in Croydon. And we can do the same again in 2015.
The Conservative campaign in Croydon was flawed for three reasons.
First, they had no message – treating the electorate with so little respect they didn’t even produce a manifesto. Their focus instead was to run a negative and personal campaign, falsely claiming Labour would put up council tax by 27%. The voters didn’t buy it.
Second, they didn’t listen to local people. We had talked to people across Croydon who had told us their priorities were cleaning up Croydon, tackling crime, and building more schools. If the Conservatives had had those conversations, maybe they would have known what people’s priorities were. Instead they had nothing to say.
Finally, their tactics were all wrong. They focused their attentions on a Labour ward, where they made small but not significant gains. They missed the real battle ground completely, despite us tweeting where we were there every day. We were able to mobilise more people to get out and vote. We ran a better campaign.
Those are the reasons why they lost. Looking at the Tory response, I think there’s a danger for them that they will keep on losing.
They will keep on losing if they convince themselves it is all down to UKIP. Yes UKIP was absolutely a factor, but it’s a worry for all the main parties. Labour lost votes to UKIP as well.
On the doorstep, people say they are voting UKIP for two reasons. First, and I get this more than anything else, because they are fed up with all the political parties after the expenses scandal and promises broken. Second, it’s all about immigration.
