Why will Left Labour fight mainly Labour Party held constituencies?
We are more likely to win safe Labour seats than any others. That will give us MPs to argue our case in Parliament.
It also gives us Short money. Named after Edward Short, this is a payment to opposition parties that obtain either 2 MPs or 1 MP plus 150,000 votes nationally. Short money currently runs at £18,297 per MP, plus £36.54 for every 200 votes won nationally.
Knocking out right wing Labour MPs hurts the Labour Party financially. Replacing them with Left Labour MPs alters the relationships and political weightings within the House of Commons.
Ours is a battle between democratic socialists and right-wing social democrats. We need to show that a majority of traditional Labour supporters in Labour seats prefer our politics. Once we have won that battle, a lot of undecided Labour voters will swing to us.
Many in the social democratic camp honestly believe that traditional Labour voters will not vote for radical socialist policies. Once they see that Labour voters really will support socialist policies, these social democrats will shed their pink perspective.
Once we have Left Labour MPs fighting for socialism, we will squeeze the remaining left of the rump Labour Party. On every vote where they do not support socialism they will feel emotionally and politically diminished.
These MPs will be less frightened of losing the Labour Whip if they know that Left Labour will welcome and support them.
Why are we letting left Labour Party MPs and candidates off the hook by not opposing them?
It would be a waste of resources to have socialists fighting each other. We have every expectation that they will come to us anyway, without us having spent any money or effort to get them elected.
Why will Left Labour fight some constituencies that Labour does not hold?
To gain a Left Labour government, we need to win not only all the 200 current Labour seats, but 125 others as well. Seats that have been Labour in the past are more likely to turn Left Labour.
There are many constituencies that within living memory had huge Labour majorities, but Labour lost them. If the local comrades are prepared to put the work in by continuous campaigning over one or two or three General Elections, why not?
In some areas there are no Labour seats at all, but lots of Left Labour activists. If they believe that they can turn a marginal constituency over two or three General Elections, we approve.
What is your fixation about leaflets?
Up to a fifth of the population does not have the digital skills to use social media properly. They tend to be the older people and the poorer people. In our target seats, the percentage may well be more than 20%.
People complain that they never see the Labour Party except at election time.
If we are leafletting virtually every month, Left Labour are seen to be on the streets. If a street is leafletted by the same person month after month, that person is seen as the face of Left Labour. People will talk to our leafletters, and raise issues of concern. If we are seen to be helping people even before we are elected, that would be good.
Once we are in contact with our communities we will discovers needs for actions that we can fill. It might be door to door petitions, street stalls, soup kitchens, breakfast clubs, night shelters or whatever the community needs. Maybe just free or very cheap bingo once Covid is no longer a danger.
Is “Left Labour” going to be the name we fight elections under?
At the moment, “Left Labour” suits us. Most of us have left Labour, and all of us are to the Left of Labour. We are identifiable by our name.
There is a danger that the Electoral Commission will refuse to register “Left Labour” as a political party, because of the danger of confusion with “Labour”.
Many of the good names have been taken. Our friends at the Breakthrough Party have successfully registered “Breakthrough Party” with the Electoral Commission. They are open to cooperation or merger. As are we.
Does Left Labour have a timeline?
When Left Labour was set up over Xmas 2020, the Labour Party was losing hundreds of members every week. Over January 2021, and into February, the Labour Leadership has continued its trajectory.
The original thinking was that the Labour leadership will stitch up the Annual Conference in September 2021, ending any hope of democratically restoring socialism to the Labour Party. Over September / October it is likely that 100,000+ Labour Party members will abandon the Labour Party.
Left Labour was set up to have a functioning political party that orphaned democratic socialists will wish to join.
We receive approaches daily from people who have left the Labour Party, those who are thinking of leaving, and those who declare that they will stay on at least until Annual Conference.
We are using this quiet period to have lots of discussions about many political issues. Assuming we can agree a consensus, we will agree a Constitution and open a formal membership process. Ideally this will be completed before the massive expansion takes place.
Since the above was written, we have set Sunday 30 May 2021 for the meeting to adopt the Constitution. That meeting will elect an acting Leader and Acting Joint Treasurers.
We will have National Committee elections in November 2021 .
In December 2021 we will have elections for President and Joint Treasurers.
Annual Conference will be 8th and 9th January 2022
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