The truth is that South Thanet should never have been blue – let alone in danger of turning purple

There’s a lot of interest in the exact Dulux colour composition of Farage’s purple peril. We’ve already had the Ribena test, and this week a City AM piece sought to disentangle ‘red Ukip’ from ‘blue Ukip’ – the Labour component of Nigel Farage’s appeal from the Tory one. The latter article, probably unsurprisingly, concluded that red Ukip was mainly a northern phenomenon and blue Ukip predominantly southern.

South Thanet, the Kent seat where I’m standing against Nigel Farage, seems at first to corroborate this. The Tories’ 2010 vote share of 48% has been cut to around 30%, according to recent polls, and they sit third in the running, behind Mr Farage and myself. So in strictly psephological terms Ukip seem to have poached many more ex-blues than former-reds in my part of the country – they are more ‘tweed’ than ‘tracksuit’, as some have put it.

Yet the truth, as always, is more complex. South Thanet is the most deprived seat in Kent, with 29% of people paid less than the living wage – leading the TUC to dub it a “living wage blackspot”. As Luke Akehurst wrote in this site earlier in the week, it has taken an “economic battering” and is afflicted by deep poverty and inequality.

Many Ukip target seats are similar. Clacton and Great Yarmouth, for example, both have very high levels of deprivation. Poor wages often endemic in former tourist towns traditionally reliant on non-unionised, seasonal work, and residents who feel frustrated and forgotten turn to Farage’s party in the absence of a positive alternative.

This is something we urgently need to address, so I was delighted by the response to Rally for a Better Future – a trade union and Labour Party day of action held in the seat on the Saturday just gone. The event was attended by speakers including Frances O’Grady, Paul Kenny, Tony Burke and Roger McKenzie, and over 200 people attended. As Frances said beforehand, “It’s time to give working people hope for the future”.

We need much more like this here and in other east coast towns – not just in the run up to the election but in the coming years. The truth is that South Thanet should never have been blue – let alone in danger of turning purple. It’s a seat in greater need than most other UK constituencies of higher pay, better services and more protection from rogue landlords – things that only a strong Labour voice for the area can provide.

As the election nears we have a fantastic ground game and are breathing down Farage’s neck. I hope and believe that here in Thanet, as well as in other seats preyed upon by demagogues of the right, we will beat Ukip and in-so-doing lay the foundations for a brighter future in Britain’s seaside towns.

Will Scobie is Labour candidate for South Thanet