This Christmas, you can give Parliament a new Liberal Democrat MP

By Grace Fletcher-Hackwood / @msgracefh

“This Christmas, you can give Parliament a new Liberal Democrat MP”

That’s from the email the Lib Dems have sent out to their members in the North West, encouraging them to come campaigning in Oldham East & Saddleworth.

I was there yesterday – along with a lot of other Labour activists – and the place was overrun with Yellow Tories. Their email goes on to say that ‘hundreds’ of activists have been helping out, and that ‘For the first time in most of our lifetimes, we have government ministers campaigning for the Liberal Democrats in a by-election’: – cabinet members like Chris Huhne have been out on the doorsteps.

The Lib Dems are right about one thing – if there is a by-election, it needs to be won before Christmas. If you can get to Oldham, please do – activists are going up from Manchester most weekends so get in touch with me if you’d like to join us.

But wherever you are in the country, you can also help without going out in the snow, by logging on to the Virtual Phone Bank, selecting Oldham East & Saddleworth, and making a few calls.

You can do this at any time – but Labour activists across the country will be taking part tonight, and every Monday, between 6pm and 8pm, and tweeting using the #mobmonday hashtag.

Please join us if you can – even ten minutes of your time can help make sure we don’t give parliament a new Lib Dem MP in the New Year. Don’t worry if you’ve never canvassed before: the Virtual Phone Bank takes you through a very easy script, and there will be lots of experienced activists around on Twitter to give advice – drop me a DM on Twitter or email me if you need any help or if you want to find out more about helping us in Oldham.