The fight for Labour votes will be a long and enduring process

by David Hodges / @davetomhodges

The Thirsk & Malton by-election result is the final signal that we both lost this election and have plenty of hard work ahead of us to regain the portion of the electorate we lost. We were never going to win this seat – it has never returned anything other than a Conservative member – but for our vote to drop by over 9% after the Lib/Con coalition agreement indicates no immediate backlash to either of the governing parties. In fact, the Liberal vote increased by 4.5%.

Admittedly, they are in a ‘honeymoon’ period and things will get much tougher for them as the travails of government take hold. However, this must be seen as a warning that automatic conversion to Labour through disgust at the coalition will not alone give us the votes to win the next election. We have to convince people that we have learnt from our mistakes and provide the answers to the big policy questions that the country faces.

Let’s be honest, David Laws showed on Wednesday in response to an urgent question on the economy by the Shadow Chancellor that there is talent in the new government. He took centre stage with a relish and exuberance that you’d expect from a clearly capable politician – he didn’t win the 1984 Observer Mace National Schools Debating Competition for no reason – but as Yvette Cooper showed in her point of order on the Future Jobs Fund in response, there are clear points of difference already – the scrapping of 10,000 university places is another frontline cut which shows where the Government’s tendencies lie – and importantly that we are a party full of talent as well.

These cuts are just the start, and where they are wrong and not in the interests of the people they represent we have to vociferously oppose. However, all Labour people have to appreciate that the coalition does not automatically squeeze the Liberal or Conservative vote; we have to actively achieve this ourselves. The process begins with an open, clean and honest leadership contest where Labour supporters engage in a dialogue with the contenders about our future direction, but that is merely the start of the beginning – the real fight for our votes is a long and enduring process – one we must all be ready to fight for if we want to remove this coalition and the frontline cuts that comes’ with them.