De Piero: Tories may outspend us, but we’ll out-campaign them

This week’s fundraising figures may show that the Conservatives will be able to outspend Labour in the run up to next year’s general election, but a fall in Tory membership means that we’ll be able to “out-body” them, according to Gloria De Piero.

In an interview with The Guardian today, the Shadow Women and Equalities Minister explains how she is launching a campaign to connect with disengaged voters. Along with Deputy Chair of the Labour Party Jon Ashworth, De Piero will start touring seaside constituencies in an attempt to attract a new generation of voters to sign up as Labour supporters for free, with a small contribution making them eligible in some internal elections.

De Piero believes that the Party’s grassroots support can make up for the financial disadvantage:

“The Tories have got serious problems with their membership. But they have got wealthy donors which means they can outspend us £2 to £3 to our every £1. That is a fact.

“But we honestly think we will be able to out-body them by the same number – two to three for their own one – feet on the street, in our marginal seats. This could be a real difference.”

This new campaign follows on from the Ashfield MP’s “Why do people hate me?” events two years ago. Despite the risk involved of a politician encouraging people to talk about why they don’t like politicians (many will attest that little encouragement is usually needed), the tour was judged to be a success, and De Piero now aims to build further support for Labour amongst people usually put off by politics.

On engaging more voters, she said:

“Joining a political party is quite a weird thing to do because not many people do it. But you do meet people on the doorstep who are genuinely angry, fed up. Those people might not necessarily want to go along to a party meeting.

“But if they are kept in touch with what is going on locally they might want to give an hour on a street stall. This might be start of their engagement in politics – these are the ordinary people who might end up being the councillors and MPs of tomorrow. This could be their little start.

“Politics is quite good at locking people out. You can see you lose people. This can start people on a soft process.”