A summer win for Labour – as the Tories bickered amongst themselves

Looking back on the summer just gone, the contrast between the Labour and Tory campaign these past few weeks could not be starker, and sets the stage not just for the conference season ahead but also for the coming general election campaign.

This recess will surely be one that David Cameron hopes to forget – a summer of resignations and defections from the Conservatives that have sent the party into disarray.

But whilst the Tories spent the summer looking inwards and bickering amongst themselves, Labour was looking beyond Westminster and speaking to millions of people on the doorstep, online and in speeches across the country, setting out the choice our country faces next May.

David Cameron started the recess with the resignation of one of his most senior Foreign Office Ministers, Sayeeda Warsi over the government’s response to the violence in Gaza. That same week, the Foreign Office lost another Minister, Mark Simmonds, who announced his departure from Government and from Parliament. Weeks later, David Cameron once again scrambled to hold his Party together following the decision by Conservative MP, Douglas Carswell, to quit. This time over Europe. And as Parliament returned this week, Chris Kelly has become the 9th Conservative Party MP who was elected in 2010 to either stand down or declare their intention to stand down in 2015.

This growing crisis inside the Conservative Party appears to have disoriented the Prime Minister in the face of his unruly MPs who seem to prefer fighting with one another more than working together like a party of government.

Conservative strategists clearly made a big error in simply hoping that they could get through the summer with their fingers crossed and avoid anything upsetting the Prime Minister’s holiday plans.

Labour on the other hand has worked hard during the time that Parliament has not been sitting to focus on some of the biggest issues facing our country.

I’m proud of the team of Labour Party staff who worked tirelessly to organise a full programme of speeches, events and interviews by my fellow Shadow Ministers which spanned the summer and the country. They were all focused on setting out the choice our country will face at the next election between a Tory-led Government, which stands up only for a privileged few, and Labour, which would tackle the cost of living crisis and make Britain better off.

Over the past four weeks, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet teams made nineteen speeches – on topics from the NHS to energy and from housing to transport – which saw our ‘Choice’ campaign covered on national and regional broadcast as well as being viewed nearly 4 million times on Facebook and over 2 million times on Twitter.

And on the ground, our members and activists have been working to take the fight to the Tories and Lib Dems where it matters and on the issues that really count. We launched an NHS campaign this summer – calling on David Cameron to match our GP waiting times target, and a jobs campaign – setting out how a Labour Government will deliver more and better jobs, especially for young people in this country.

Across our key seats we have spoken with over a million voters on the doorstep since January – more than double the number per key seat at the same point in the last Parliament.

At the same time, ahead of the independence referendum on September 18,  Labour politicians and members have been taking a leading role in making the case for Scotland staying within the UK ‎.

While Labour MPs and activists have been hard at work this summer focusing on ensuring a Labour government is elected in 2015, Conservative activists and MPs seemed more focussed on who is going to succeed David Cameron next year.

We always knew this would be a tough campaign and a tight election – but after this summer, as we approach the conference season, Labour has built momentum around a campaign that speaks to the hopes and aspirations of people across the country. This summer we saw the best and the boldest of our party come together to define the choice that voters will face next May. We know a Labour government in 2015 is within reach, and we know we can, and will, continue to work together to deliver it.

Douglas Alexander is the MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire South and he is the Shadow Foreign Secretary