David Evans on why Labour is like a building site and polls are like perfume

Labour party general secretary David Evans says Labour has “radically” changed its doorstep scripts, tested out “new things” in every different by-election and been “busting a gut” to match Tory election spending – including mobilising the  non-members who want the Tories out.

He also compared transforming Labour to “rewiring a house”, and cited a quote by former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres saying “polls are like perfume: nice to smell, dangerous to swallow”.

The party chief made the comments on a panel event on “Labour in 2024” at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference in London on Sunday, attended by LabourList.

Labour ‘confident’ about matching rising Tory election spending

He noted the Conservatives had almost doubled electoral campaign expenditure limits, as well as introducing voter ID requirements  “fix a problem that wasn’t there to serve themselves”.

The new rules were confirmed late last year, with Sky News reporting the national spending cap will rise to around £35 million.

He said prime minister Rishi Sunak could find the cash “behind the back of his settee”, whereas Labour had to work “very, very hard to get anywhere near it”.

“But we are working hard, we are confident that we will get there or thereabouts. Because we can’t let the Tories outspend us massively in the short campaign, when voters who currently aren’t terribly plugged in will be plugged in the nearer we get.

“So rest assured, there is a really big effort going in. We have more of what we call ‘high-value donors’ than ever before. We are working hard to get those donors to trust and believe in us, and I believe they will.”

Record wealthy donors’ funding ‘won’t be enough’

“But that in itself won’t be enough. We’re also going out to our affiliates, and there are some very positive signs that our affiliates will be recognising just what a seismic election this is.”

There will also be a “massive general election campaign” to raise smaller donations, and “I think we can exceed any element that we’ve ever got before in a general election from that”.

“We’ve also launched a lottery, and that is already bringing in something like a quarter of a million pounds a year.”

But he said the Conservatives made more from theirs, “so my target is before the election to significantly gbeat them.”

Labour is also looking at how the Democrats have been “reaching out beyond the membership”, as they are “much better than we are at reaching out into the community and saying to people who want to see the back of a Republican leadership: come with us”.

Labour will be “exploring things to do that”, both in mobilising non-members and fundraising from them.

We need ‘total political war’

Labour has also “significantly enhanced” the quality of its campaigning, albeit it is “not perfect by any means”.

Evans highlighted how Labour had “radically” changed its script for canvassers to use with voters. “First of all,  we ask what people are interested in. So we’re giving before we get.

“What we want from them is the data…but before we do that, we give something. We align ourselves with their interests. That’s about building trust and building support, and thereby gaining permission to then have a conversation.

It’s a key part of getting into a position where people are open to receive our messaging.”

He also said the party had been every by-election to “test new things”.

‘Total political war’ and field operations informing comms

Meanwhile “our field operation now really informs our comms”, and “the era of air war and ground war in politics is over”.

“If it ever was real, where the air war wins the battle and the ground war is the poor infantry – what we need now is total political war… the special forces who are on the ground are our members who find those voters…build the relationship, build trust and guide in the digital armoury.”

Meanwhile Evans thanked JLM for their work helping to “root out antisemitism”, including in involving the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

He said his experience had taught him “how difficult it is to change the Labour party”, as the party has an “immune system that fights off change”.

Evans compared trying to change the party from being internally to outwardly focused to “rewiring a house”.

It felt like “we’ve moved through to the living room and all of a sudden someone’s unwired the kitchen, which was rewired”.

He would “not say for a second that the job is done”. The party still needs to “drive through change” and build change “into our DNA, and not become conservative and resistant to change when we’ve got to fight the next election, not the last one.”

Why Labour feels like a ‘building site’

The party also “still feels a little bit like a building site” as it has had to not only make “voters the focus”, but also cut spending and jobs and address “profound problems with structure, culture, capability and process”.

But to build anything that lasts, “you’ve got to get the foundations right” – and the party has a “tremendous staff body now”.

“We’ve invested heavily in field, digital, and campaigns, which are three areas that we absolutly lost last time [and] we are invested in building up the leadership capability of our organisation.”