How Westminster Labour won the Tory stronghold of Hyde Park ward

Until May 5th, Hyde Park ward in the heart of Westminster had been a Conservative stronghold since 1964. It was Shirley Porter’s ward during the notorious ‘homes for votes’ scandal when she was leader of the council. But on May 5th 2022, Labour narrowly won all three seats, following a 14-month campaign that resulted in a 11% swing to Labour and helped turn Westminster Labour for the very first time.

What started as a decoy operation to draw Conservatives away from the Labour target wards of West End and Lancaster Gate soon turned into a full-scale campaign to win. Judith Southern, Shamsed Chowdhury and I started our Hyde Park ward campaign in March 2021, and over the next 14 months, we talked and listened to residents about their concerns practically every day. 

We quickly realised that we were making an impression when residents started to tell us that “at last, someone is listening to us”, “thanks for taking an interest in our concerns” and “thanks for replying to our emails, the other lot never do”. Some of the issues residents brought to us were very small, but if you can get the small things fixed, it shows you can get things done. And ‘we get things done’ soon became our campaign slogan. Residents’ concerns spanned a wide area, so our campaigns included:

• Supporting residents in their successful battle against plans to build a 20-storey tower. 
• Forcing the council to tackle illegal rubbish dumping hotspots, fill potholes and fix broken street lights.
• Getting builders to remove scaffolding that had been there for six years. Our efforts got the scaffolding removed within a few months.
• Moving benches that were used by drug dealers.
• Getting housing associations to do essential repairs.  

No issue was too small. Every organisation that needed to improve its service, public or private, was in our sights. Invariably, our requests for action to sort out a problem were acted upon. And that boosted our claim that ‘we get things done’! By election day, we had taken up hundreds of individual cases, which galvanised and enthused Labour supporters and turned Tories, Lib Dems and Greens into Labour voters.

Communications was a vital part of our campaign. There were only a handful of us in our Hyde Park team, so we allocated tasks based on our skills, time availability and experience.

• We delivered six editions of our bi-monthly newsletter, ‘Hyde Park Matters’, to every house and flat in the ward.
• We posted daily Facebook and Twitter stories updating residents on the local issues we were taking up. 
• We wrote to our local newspaper, Westminster Extra, every week about the issues that were of top concern to residents. Our letters were printed every week.
• We sent monthly ‘action reports’ to our email database. We started the campaign with less than 100 email addresses, but our list grew to nearly 600 by election day. 

Organisation was very important too. We were very fortunate to have the help and advice of Margaret Lynch, a former Labour organiser, as our agent. At every canvassing session, we encouraged our supporters to apply for a postal vote. Voter turnout on the day was just 30%, but postal voter turnout was 60%. So Labour supporters were twice as likely to vote if they had a postal vote. Our majorities were slim, so the effectiveness of the postal vote campaign cannot be underestimated. 

What are the lessons that Labour can learn from the sensational Hyde Park victory? First, starting early is so important. Early candidate selections are vital to give yourself time to understand the issues, develop contacts and make your mark. Rushing around for a frantic few months impresses few people. Starting early enables you to say: “We don’t just come round at election time.”

Second, ‘little and often’ was our campaign mantra – and this enabled us to pace ourselves and incorporate our politics with our daily lives. We had a few ‘action days’, when we had the help of some great friends, but generally our campaign was based on an hour here and an hour there, regularly over the 14-month campaign.

Third, nothing beats face-to-face contact. Knocking on doors and talking to voters provides you with the raw material on which to build your campaign. Listen to what people say, take action, and then tell them what you have done. Repeat this again and again and again. Your reward will be in the ballot box.