Matt’s Introduction

Hello.

Thank for you for joining us for this session on how to hold the progressive centre.

It is lovely to be here with you all. My name is Matt Redmore and I’m part of an organisation called Hold Fast Labour. I was born and raised in Hull and lived here in Sheffield for two years before I moved to Bristol. I also sit on the South West executive and I have a background in campaigns.

Hold Fast Labour is a fledgling organisation that has been born out of Thangam Debbonaire’s General election campaign in Bristol Central, which she sadly lost to the Greens. I, and people who worked on TD’s campaign, have formed this new campaign group and our purpose is to focus on the risk posed by the minor parties. To bring people into rooms at conferences like this to also share our experience with Labour HQ so that they can take some of those lessons into consideration and use it for the national picture.

Our Panel

We have a brilliant panel for you today and a I’d like to thank them for coming along and being part of our organisation.

We have Jane Thomas who is a member of Labour’s NEC and chair of Labour to Win. Jane also has a long background in campaigns.

And we have Cllr. Mark Rusling who is a Lab and co-operative councillor here in Sheffield representing Shiregreen and Brightside.

The Reason This Matters

The focus at GE was Tories. From all parties. People just wanted them gone.

But next time, all parties are coming for our lunch - The Tories are thinking about breakfast.

The risk is that, while they may not win in your areas, the smaller parties may take enough votes off you to let other parties in. So we need to be thinking about them. This is especially true in Yorkshire where we have the Hull and East riding mayoral election looming.

My Experience with the Greens

I’m going to spend some time sharing our experience of the Greens, their tactics, why people vote for them and how we can tackle them.

I have gained good experience of fighting against the Greens, having been in the trenches and seen how they campaign. When I was a council candidate during the local elections, and during Thangam's campaign in the general.

The tactics they use are similar to the tactics used by the other small parties including Reform.

The Politics of Protest

The depend heavily on the politics of protest - Complaint about where the world is. Targeting those campaigns at the government or even at us when we were in opposition. Using this this to divide people and strip away our votes - I’ll come back to that because there is a weakness that can then be used when we campaign against them.

Their Cuddly Image

The Greens specifically can be tricky to attack. They are the Golden Labrador puppy of politics. Voters think of them as progressive, cute cuddly - so if you kick the puppy you look mean and people get upset - such overt attacks can put people off.

The Selling of False Hope

They say they offer real hope and real change but it boils down to false hope. Like the other small parties, they offer simplistic solutions to difficult problems. They wrap these in simple messages which often hit an emotional hook.

They tap into how people feel - GE anecdote - We were offering someone with a seat at the table while they would be shouting from the sidelines.

This is something I want to get across - people are not voting green for purely environmental reasons anymore. When Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay became leaders, the two objectives they set out were: To professionalise the party and to broaden the party's appeal. You may notice they talk about social justice issues a lot more than they did under Caroline Lucas. They lean into politics by vibes.

Ashcroft polling after the GE investigated why people voted - Were they chasing policies? Where they voting tactically? When it came to the Green Party, it was not about their policies - it was that they trusted their motives more.

The Greens have this very good image that they’re doing the right thing. And this is something we need to dispel.

But they don’t really have anything to offer. They are very good at criticising what the government or council is doing when you ask what they would do, they don’t really have any solutions or suggestions of what they would do instead beyond simplistic ones, and it’s really only fair to point this out.

In Bristol they are making a real pig’s ear of things because they came in without a plan and are now struggling. They are selling off social housing, cutting domestic violence services and they’re cutting bin collections. You would think they’d have realised from Brighton that you don’t mess with people’s bins. These are all choices that they're making, and we are holding them to account on it by asking is this what you voted for, are these your values, is this what you expected the green party to do.

Now that’s easy for us because they’re in office but you can also hold them to account when they are in opposition as well.

Your rent is too high leaflet

This leaflet really resonated with people who were paying nearly a grand a month for their rent and they were surprised that the greens were doing this while saying that they wanted more housing.

How to Fight Back

Focus on what they say and do

So you can attack the greens but don’t attack their principles, attack their choices and how it impacts on your electorate.

And you can do this where you live if you are facing a threat from the greens. Look into their record, what they’ve said, what they’ve opposed. Have it in the back of your mind so you can bring it up on the doorstep.

And if you are in office - shout about the progressive things you are doing and bring it back to your principles. We’re really good at telling people what we’re doing but often not why - CTRS - We think that poorest shouldn’t have to pay council tax

Leaflets

Greens put out a lot at election time - don’t have the activists - they use simple but sophisticated messaging that cuts through - we need to match that - use simple messaging - less is more

Framing

When attack they use ‘what local people’ are saying - local people are disappointed Labour have done this/that -designed to get people to empathise with their neighbours. If they start to build a narrative about something nip it in the bud.

The greens are very aggressive and repeat their attacks over and over. At the GE they put out a leaflet saying we would privatise the NHS because Wes said he’d use private capacity to clear the backlog – This was disingenuous.

Narrative

Use leaflets to draw a narrative - neck and neck throughout (their data) and then on the eve of poll low and behold they’ve pulled ahead and are now in line to win. People want to follow the crowd right they want to feel they’re doing what other people are doing.

Then on polling day they have their reminder cards but it isn’t what Labour do which is GO AND VOTE it’s a picture of them saying thank you for your support - maybe these are supposed to be targeted but we find that they go everywhere

And I think these are effective for 3 reasons:

1. For Labour voters, it can act as a suppressant, an assumptive close. The Greens feel so confident they’re saying thank you. This is a done deal.

2. For Green voters, it’s a nice reminder and if they have told a canvasser they’re voting green it will seem like they remembered.

3. For Undecided voters, it is a nice message that can be that last nudge taps into Greens cuddly image.

This is borne out by the Ashcroft polling - At GE 20% of people who voted green decided to in the last week. 10% decided to on the day - if it’s close between you and the green candidate then that could be the difference between winning and losing.

If you are facing a green threat then get organised. The Greens are very organised and they’re training their activists to be organised as well - no two ways around it - if you have a green threat then you have to get organised. Like Reform they are really hungry for it and we have to be as hungry for it. Because we’ve seen from Brighton and Bristol that they are crap at running things and it’s because they are a bunch of whingers frankly. They aren’t interested in getting their hands dirty and doing things they just want to moan. It is Labour that is prepared to do the graft and we are best placed to make the lives of the people we seek to serve better because our party is underpinned by values and history.