‘Many voters in Mid Bedfordshire are fed up and struggling. Labour can win’

After nearly two decades of neglect from an (at best) part-time MP in Nadine Dorries, Mid Bedfordshire will get a chance to deliver its verdict. Despite people’s preconceptions of the area, Labour should be in it to win it.

Many in Mid Bedfordshire face the same struggles as elsewhere

Whenever I tell people I’m from Bedfordshire, it’s fair to say they often get a very particular vision of the place. There’s something about the name, not to mention the home counties tag, that for many people conjures up images of leafy suburbs, long driveways and 4x4s.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re blessed with some of the most beautiful countryside the UK has to offer, and as with anywhere, you’ll find more than a few pockets of affluence. But spend time in the villages and towns across Mid Bedfordshire, and you’ll quickly come across communities struggling with exactly the same challenges and pressures that affect people right across the UK.

You’ll find parents struggling to find affordable childcare and concerned about the ability of stretched local schools to cater for the needs of their children. Communities that feel abandoned by the complete collapse in rural policing under the Tories. Towns and villages hollowed out by the decline of high streets and the closure of vital local bank branches and post offices. Commuters battling a Thameslink service that is as unreliable as it is increasingly unaffordable. Families concerned about how they will support elderly loved ones to grow old with dignity. Local businesses and farmers battered by the mess the Tories have made of Britain’s post-Brexit economy. But most of all, you’ll find a place thoroughly fed up of being taken for granted.

The local election results showed voters are fed up of Tory failure

It’s no surprise given that, in the face of all this, Nadine Dorries, Mid Bedfordshire’s largely absent MP, would rather opine on the latest twist and turns of the soap opera that is Boris Johnson than roll her sleeves up and get stuck into tackling the very real issues affecting her constituents.

It’s clear from the recent local elections that Bedfordians have had enough of the Conservatives’ legacy of failure. Independent councillors formed a minority administration on the council for the first time in its history, displacing the Conservatives as the largest party. The picture isn’t any better when you focus on just the wards within the Mid Bedfordshire constituency either, with Ben Walker (co-founder of Britain Elects) pointing out that the Tories barely topped the polls.

Labour can win here – but it will take hard work

You don’t have to spend long on the doorstep in Mid Bedfordshire to see just how real this sense of dissatisfaction is either. On doorstep after doorstep, I’ve spoken to voters fed up of being neglected by the Conservatives, looking for a better offer and looking to use the by-election to send a message that they won’t be taken for granted any longer.

There is huge potential for Labour to tap into this disaffection. Recent MRP polling projections for the seat shows Labour running neck and neck and even in the lead. But translating this potential into hard support for Labour can’t be taken for granted. Local residents’ frustrations with the Tories are clear, but it’s on us to persuade them that sending a message by electing a Labour MP is the answer.

It’s heartening to see the national party committing to taking Mid Bedfordshire seriously. It’s time for us all to grab the sun cream, put on our trainers and get on the doorstep to show that Labour is the only party with the credibility and vision to make life better for the people of Mid Bedfordshire – and across the country.