Winning back the ‘Labour UKIPpers’

A substantial number of potential UKIP voters have voted Labour, have regarded themselves as ‘Labour people’ in communities that saw themselves as Labour. So how do we win them back? It can be hard to be told ‘I used to be Labour but you don’t stand for people like me anymore’. Hard to be be a liberal activist being told what’s wrong with immigration.

After the BNP polled 6.2% in the 2009 Euro elections, the Labour Government launched ‘Connecting Communities’ in over 150 white working class communities to undercut the alientation that damaged community cohesion. It had a measurable impact in just a few months.

Connecting Communities was supported by The Campaign Company (TCC), who also worked in Barking and a number of local election campaigns. More recently they’ve developed their analysis of the issues in these communities as UKIP’s support has grown (and of course UKIP, dangerously, reaches many who would never vote for a far right party.)

TCC have put together two documents about UKIP that I hope Labour activists will find valuable. I’ve posted these on my new website The Optimistic Patriot.

A Seven Step Programme for beating UKIP on the ground is full of commonsense insight that nonetheless needs saying.

Understand who the Labour people are who consider voting UKIP, and why. UKIP support emanates from people who have a palpable sense of loss and they are mourning the demise of a culture that they felt provided them with these key elements. By understanding the values of UKIP voters we can begin to understand which values – like fairness, reciprocity, rights and responsibilities – are congruent with Labour values.

Train your activists to communicate with voters whose view of the world may be different to theirs.

Train them to listen; voters have to know that they ‘can say what they really think and Labour will be listening’; train activitists to have effective conversations.

And when you’ve identified where the voters are, campaign on local issues and build up your candidates. Their concerns may be more locally focussed and the demand for effective local response more important than some of our national messages. The very optimism of Labour campaigns may not ring true to voters who have a pessimistic outlook and who don’t see things changing where they are. They don’t think much of all politicians so say ‘X (your candidate) asked me to call; not I’m from the Labour Party’

As you do so, you can remind people why they always thought of themselves as Labour – not least the importance of the NHS. The Tories are still highly toxic with this group of voters. Remid them of how nasty the Tories are and what they will do if they get in.

Then, and only then, when trust and a relationship has been developed, can you put the squeeze on UKIP.

Do read the full document. But the fundamental point is that BEFORE we can win political arguments we must re-establish rapport. And thatmeans listening effectively in the first instance.

Useful for discussion with activists is Immigration, UKIP, Settlers – and Labour’s challenge. Explaining why UKIP voters feel the way they do, it makes the obvious point: if you start a sentence, ‘Immigration has brought many benefits…’ you’ve probably lost your voter before you’ve said whatever ever else you were going to say. Start where the voters are, not where you are.

And finally, I’ve set out in Optimistic Patriotism and the fight with UKIP how our longer challenge is to create an optimistic patriotism that re-connects these crucial voters with Labour values and their hopes for our country.