Voter registration is the key to our electoral success

One thing we are all painfully aware of is that if Labour is to succeed at the next General Election then it will have to do so in a political terrain that is much changed. We are all aware of the changes brought about by the existence of a governing Coalition and I don’t intend to discuss them here as they are, in many regards, a separate issue. However, it is not just the ideological political weather that has changed but the logistics of fighting an election. Some of the biggest changes in this regard are going to be brought about by the Boundary Commission review and its proposal to equalise the size of constituencies based on the number of registered voters.

Thus far, we have focused on fighting the proposals put forward in parliament. This is a fundamentally mistaken approach. We can complain and pontificate all we like – the fact is that these proposals are likely to be accepted. The main logistical impact is that getting out the vote will be no longer enough – we will have to make sure our voters are actually registered. This will have a major impact on the seats we actually fight in and, of course, on the eventual outcome.

No longer can political parties take the issue of participation in the political process for granted. Labour certainly has been guilty of taking its core vote for granted and continues to do so. Nobody is saying the core vote is the only vote you need, but you do need a strong core vote as a solid base to build on. People who counterpose the core vote to the wider electorate are therefore guilty of a slight deception. It simply isn’t an either/or choice.

Up and down the country, CLP’s are already selecting parliamentary candidates. This is based on the fact that at the last election candidates that were in place sooner and incumbents did better than the national average. However, to say the same assumption is valid now is to fight the next election on the terrain of previous elections, and to do that is to fail to acknowledge the major shifts that have taken place in the political tectonic plates.

CLP’s who are prioritising a selection process (while meekly asking the Boundary Commission to change their minds in the public consultation phase) are missing the point and are potentially leaving themselves in a big mess. A voter registration campaign is the guaranteed way to change the commission’s mind because the maths its proposals are based on will change – so change can be forced upon it. It should go without saying that a voter registration campaign is also good for our democracy – the more people involved the better. Labour voters are less likely to be registered and participate so it obviously falls on us to take a lead in this area.

It is not just electorally beneficial for Labour – it forces us to engage with the people we have lost to not voting and open up a real dialogue with them. A virtuous circle could be opened up by doing something that is politically right and electorally beneficial. The fact that this issue is not being taken seriously, while the leadership forlornly chases after the much numerically smaller band of switchers to the Conservative Party, suggests that it is still determined to treat our core support with contempt. Sadly, here the strategy speaks volumes about the politics. It is a strategy that is, however, doomed to failure. If the leadership cannot grasp the nettle of this issue then the odds are that Labour will lose the next election.

For all their flaws, the Boundary Commission proposals have put voter registration on the map. It is unquestionably the key to Labour’s success or failure at the next election. It is democratically, politically and electorally the right priority for the party. The leadership needs to wake-up and realise this before it sleepwalks the party into electoral oblivion.