Who are Labour’s next generation?

Labour is the party of the people, but who are the people behind the party? In an election dominated by data and analytics it is all too easy to lose sight of the human aspect of the campaign. People vote for policies as well as personalities, so the character and background of Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs) matters. After all, in a general election you are entrusting your voice to a representative. Voters need to know their Labour candidate will get their voice heard and that they have the values, experience, and ability to turn words into actions.

Labour has an incredibly diverse and talented roster of candidates for May 2015. The most women up for election in winnable seats of any party. Thirty-five openly gay candidates. And nine BAME candidates fighting in key marginals, versus five for the Tories. Each of Labour’s 631 candidates have their own stories to tell. The Young Fabians chose to focus on just some of these stories by profiling fifteen candidates in a brand-new digital pamphlet: Fifteen for 2015.

The chosen candidates represent a rough cross-section of the modern party. Men and women. University and non-university educated. Black, white, gay, and straight. Disabled and able-bodied. Left and right. What emerges is a picture of Labour at its best: a broad movement for social justice and equality powered by people from all walks of life.

There are some real gems to be unearthed in these stories. Which candidate once performed in a rock band at Glastonbury? Who took on the multinational Serco group at the tender age of 14- and won? Who takes inspiration from The Thick of It’s Malcolm Tucker? Find out the answer to all these and more within the pages of Fifteen for 2015.

But as Iain McNicol, General Secretary of the Labour Party, explains in the pamphlet’s foreword, these candidates cannot get elected on their own. They need to be backed by organisers and volunteers on the ground: “a wonderful battalion of men and women, from every background and from every part of our country,” in his words.

If you are a Labour supporter struggling to get out on the doorstep, read the stories of these fifteen candidates and feel inspired anew to take part in a once-in-a-generation election.

The Young Fabians pamphlet ‘Fifteen for 2015’ is available to download here: http://www.youngfabians.org.uk/fifteen_for_2015

Louie Woodall is a Young Fabian Executive Committee Member