When do the Lib Dems not love a bar chart? When they’re in Wantage

Having been selected as Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Wantage last week, I was a little daunted by the scale of the challenge of turning around a campaign in just a few weeks. But I’ve been overwhelmed by the support that has flowed in from members, friends and family, and I’m excited to get cracking on taking on the Tories.

It was particularly kind of my predecessor in this seat, my friend Rachel Eden – who, if there is any justice in the universe, will be the Labour MP for Reading West before Christmas – to set aside time from her own campaign to offer some tips based on her experience in 2017.

It’s Rachel’s achievement in 2017 I want to talk about. Everyone knows Liberal Democrats love a bar chat, and it being Christmas soon I want to give them this one:

There are a couple of obvious conclusions to take from this chart representing the electoral situation here as of just two years ago. It’s going to be one hell of a challenge for us to dislodge the Tories even without the incumbency factor of Ed Vaizey, who is standing down – but hey, I like a challenge! Labour might have still been a mile behind in the Tories’ rear view mirror but we were a clear second place with the Lib Dems a dot in the distance.

And yet Wantage has suddenly become a Lib Dem target seat. They’ve persuaded the Greens to stand down under the ‘Unite to Remain’ banner and, based off a poll that shows them a few points ahead of Labour but still miles off the Tories, they’ve managed to get both Gina Miller’s tactical voting site and Best for Britain’s tool pushing a Lib Dem vote.

Let’s be clear. A poll taken early in the campaign when nationally the Labour vote is growing and the Lib Dem vote shrinking by the day is hardly valid. This isn’t a poll showing the Tories and Liberals neck-and-neck, it’s within the margin of error anyway and it’s entirely possible another poll in a week or so will show Labour ahead.

Yes, the Liberals did well in local and Euro elections here. But in this heavily Remain-supporting constituency, clearly many Labour voters were trying to send a message to our party to embrace – as we have – a forthright position supportive of a new public vote on Brexit.

I’m a passionate Remainer and with the Brexit Party now endorsing the Tories here in Wantage too it’s clear we do need tactical voting to stop Boris Johnson from getting both his hard Brexit deal and his trade deal with President Trump through parliament. But surely if we rally to Remain, we should rally around the party who came closest last time around?

We must also keep in mind that this election is about more than Brexit. It must be a climate election, and I hope local Green voters will support the candidate committed to Labour’s Green New Deal. I am prepared to take the radical action necessary to reach net-zero carbon emissions by as close to 2030 as possible, rather than 2050 – Tories’ notional target, though unlikely they’ll reach it – or indeed 2045, which is the Lib Dems’ greenwash token gesture.

It’s a living standards election, too. With London-style costs but not London-style wages, Wantage needs a £10 minimum wage for all ages as soon as possible. We need to nationalise the railways to get rid of the profit motive and instead cut rail fares. We need to tackle the multi-faceted housing crisis with rent controls. And constituents need an MP who’ll back trade unions rather than bemoan them.

Now the Lib Dems and various anti-Brexit groups backing them will likely be pouring the full £15,000(ish) allowed to be spent per constituency. By contrast, whilst we’ve got manpower, we desperately need financial support to compete with the barrage of Lib Dem marketing bumpf. Forgive me but I’m here with my begging bowl, asking if you’ll spare a few pennies or pounds to help our campaign. We came second in 2017 – it’s time to rally voters behind our Labour message of real change to go one better this time.