Labour’s doorstep narrative isn’t working

By Paul Afshar

This weekend’s papers splurged out another round of depressing polling statistics for the Government. Cutting through the reams of analysis and comment, one thing becomes clear – there are growing numbers of voters who are unconvinced by Labour’s achievements in the past 2 years and have forgotten our record in the previous ten. These are the people putting serious consideration into doing the unthinkable, and voting Tory.I was confronted at the weekend by this very dilemma. A close friend who has a track record of voting Labour confessed to wanting to vote Conservative. Stood in front of me was a guy who had voted for Ken Livingstone, having been unimpressed with what the Conservatives had to offer in London’s elections last year, but one year on was now warming to the Cameron-Osborne team.

My initial reaction? “Don’t vote Conservative!” They’ll only roll back the good work, they’ll cut public spending, and they’ll undo the progress we’ve made on equality. Clearly none of it was cutting through.

I suspect the same story is true on a national scale: people are no longer convinced by our rhetoric.

Our natural defence mechanism as Labour campaigners is to counter every potential “I’m thinking of voting Conservative” with a narrative based on the achievements of the past 12 years and a shopping list of a cutting Conservative administration in power.

It’s a narrative based on achievements which are largely being forgotten, have been discredited, or that most people take for granted. The average punter doesn’t think schools have improved, think they’re overtaxed and have forgotten it was the Labour Government that introduced the minimum wage. In short, it’s a busted narrative.

We can’t carry on just telling people why they shouldn’t vote Conservative; we have to start asking ourselves why they would. After this brief period of navel gazing and soul searching, we have to start confronting every “I’m thinking of voting Conservative” on the doorstep by asking people why they do want to vote Conservative, not only telling them why they don’t. When I put this question to punters of all political colours, the following “anti-narrative” became clear:

Why not vote Conservative – Labour have been in power too long. And anyway, I don’t like Gordon Brown. Why not give change a chance – maybe they’ll be better than this lot. They’ve lost touch, they’re corrupt – that expenses shambles shows the lot of them as crooks. How has the Budget affected me? The VAT thing was OK but I can’t remember most of it. The Tories will cut taxes – eventually. They’re going to get tough on immigration – I work with Polish guys and they’re alright but isn’t it time to stop letting more people in? I’m scared I’m going to have to pay more taxes to get us out of this mess – we’ve got so much debt.

Labour’s current narrative isn’t working. And the reason is because it isn’t resonating with what ordinary people are thinking. Does our narrative, based on a story of low unemployment, prosperity, and a Conservative Government bringing “public service cuts for everyone” answer these points? Watch our European Elections Broadcast and make up your own mind: