If you care about the rise of Ukip, go to Rochester and Strood

If you care about the rise of UKIP’s populist right-wing politics and you want to do something to stop it now, there is one place you need to make a trip to and campaign for Labour between now and 20 November: Rochester & Strood.

Polling guru Mike Smithson has said it “will have a dramatic affect on the political environment in the six months to the May 7th general election.” He’s thinking of the impact between UKIP and the Tories, but a strong showing by Labour would also massively alter the current political narrative and throw the Tories AND UKIP into disarray.

Looking at last week’s Survation poll in the constituency, which had UKIP on 40%, the Tories on 31% and Labour on 25%, he said “if standard ICM methodology, rather than Survation’s, had been used with the same data then the main two protagonists could have been almost level pegging with Labour not far behind. This is because ICM discounts the views of non-voters from last time by 50% and also re-allocates part of the “will vote -won’t say” segment to the party they supported last.”

At the moment it is still a three-way fight.

It was great to hear that Deputy Leader Harriet Harman and Shadow Cabinet member Mary Creagh were in the constituency campaigning on Monday. Staff from South East Labour and Labour’s candidate Naushabah Khan are leading a huge effort both by the well-organised local CLP and the neighbouring Kent CLPs. This is building on a lot of existing data – this isn’t one of those constituencies that hasn’t seen a Labour canvasser for years, the opposite in fact. Naushabah was treating it like the marginal it historically has been from as soon as she was selected a year ago.

But for Labour to stay in the game more volunteers to canvass and deliver leaflets, and more donations to pay for leaflets, posters and direct mail are really needed to counteract both UKIP and the Tories throwing everything they have at this.

This needs to happen in the next week or so – later will be too late as voters will have bought the narrative that this is just a fight between two competing sets of right-wingers, the Tories and UKIP if they don’t see a similar profile campaign from Labour.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Visit to canvass or deliver leaflets for Labour on any day between now and Polling Day. Labour’s local HQ is at 73 Maidstone Road, Rochester, ME1 1RL and is open every day from 10.30am. The office is 10 minutes walk from Rochester train station, which is 37 minutes by train from London St Pancras International and under an hour from London Victoria. By car take the M25 then the M2 if coming from outside London or from London the A2 then M2. Why not organise a team day out from your branch, CLP or Labour Group?
2. Book the day off to help on Polling Day: Thursday 20 November.
3. Donate to the campaign here: https://donate.labour.org.uk/south-east/1

Everything you need to know about Labour’s candidate and campaign is here:http://www.naushabahkhan.org.uk/

I will be in Rochester campaigning next Wednesday (29 October) and on Polling Day. If every Labour activist within travelling distance, and indeed everyone who just cares about voters getting a real choice, not just Tories vs UKIP, makes a similar commitment – a day now and time on Polling Day – Naushabah will have the support she needs to be in with a fighting chance.