All politics is local – why we’re backing Owen Smith

By Cllr Michael Payne and Cllr Tim Roca

Nye Bevan said if you don’t possess power then you are always subject to it.

Across our country countless thousands know the bitter truth of that. The Institute for Fiscal Studies project that the number of children in relative poverty will have risen to 3.6 million by 2020.

As local councillors we understand how important it is that we win power at all levels of government to fight for people and change lives for the better. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see the Party we love barely treading water – letting the Conservatives and SNP run rampant. Letting our country and our people down.

It follows with an inevitable logic that Labour must win elections to take power and prevent the ultimate calamity of further Tory Government.

Sadly for many the 2016 local elections showed no sign of that happening any time soon.

In nearly half a century the opposition has always gained Council seats in local elections. The only exceptions being 1982, 1985, and now of course 2016.

We lost 18 seats. In May we were barely 1% ahead of the Tories in the projected national share of the vote. The only glimmer the two Mayoral contests in Bristol and London at which the Leader was definitely persona non grata. Professor Travers of the London School of Economics uses drier but no less clear language to describe the challenge we face:

“There was a change of government between 1979 and 2015 only when the inter-election national equivalent vote share (NEVS) average was 14 per cent or above. Labour now faces the challenge of producing an average NEVS in the 2016-2019 local elections which exceeds the Conservatives’ NEVS by an average of 14 per cent per year……it is hard to see Labour moving easily from a NEVS in the low -30s in 2016 to a resounding general election win in 2020”.

You would be mistaken for thinking that such a result and its implication of a Tory Government for many more years would cause reflection and humility by those leading our Party.

Not a bit of it.

Instead we heard from our leader that “we hung on and we grew support in a lot of places.” Social media was flooded with inaccurate, bizarre or just plain false messages and memes of the tremendous victory that had just occurred. Jeremy is making progress was the line.

It mattered little that he had said Labour would gain seats not lose them, it mattered little that in Scotland we came third behind the Conservatives, or that in Wales there was a widespread decline in the Labour voteshare. It matter little that this was touted as a key test of strength for the general election.

Jeremy Corbyn had spoken it only remained for the believers to believe.

The frustrating thing is that this is all reversible if as socialists we look as we should at the evidence in front of us. With Tory incompetence and SNP failures in education and elsewhere there is a clear need for a strong Labour alternative to today’s austerity. Our Party’s electoral position is poor but there is time to turn things around and be the credible opposition we know we can be. That can only happen if we accept some clear facts.

Jeremy has not persuaded the public.

The polls show he hasn’t been persuading them since day one.

No amount of increase in party membership, blaming the ‘coup’ or wild conspiracy theories about the media or pollsters can change these simple facts.

Therefore we must build on what Jeremy has achieved, helping us re-discover our radicalism and anti-austerity heart but couple it with a leader who has a vision for implementing those principles in practice. A wealth tax to pay for our NHS, investment in Schools and Hospitals not by money plucked from thin air but through long dated gilts and a clear infrastructure strategy. Now 1,000 Labour councillors from across every part of this island have signed a letter making clear they back Owen Smith.

Nye Bevan began his political life in local government, before proving just what can be achieved when you have power.

Michael Payne is a councillor in Nottinghamshire and Tim Roca is a councillor in Westminster