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95 Membery Rennard Changing Face of Election Campaigning Liberal and Liberal Democrat campaigns Chris Rennard, former Director of Campaigns and Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, interviewed by York Membery The Changing Face of Election Campaigning Chris Rennard ord Rennard, the Liberal Democrats’ petition to try and save my local cinema. I was (left) visits John Director of Campaigns and Elections from about 12 and went round neighbours’ houses col- Leech’s campaign L1989 to 2003, and the party’s Chief Execu- lecting signatures. The organiser was Harry HQ, Manchester tive from 2003 to 2009, tells York Membery how Davies, the Liberal candidate for Childwall. He Withington, 2010 electoral campaigning has changed over his forty- didn’t quite win, but then moved to Three Riv- odd years in politics. ers in Hertfordshire where he was one of the main inspirations behind us winning and controlling What was the first campaign you were involved in? the council there. My first election campaign What did you do? What was your impression of the cam- was when I was 13 and went round with Liber- paign? Did we win? als delivering leaflets in the city council elections My first ever campaign was when I saw in the when we first won control of Liverpool in 1973. It Liverpool Echo that someone was organising a was exciting because we won. 22 Journal of Liberal History 95 Summer 2017 The Changing Face of Election Campaigning How big a role did you play in campaigning as deputy the ‘front of shop’ in the HQ, designing and chair of the Liverpool Liberal Party? Did you campaign printing some of the local leaflets, organising the in across-the-board council elections? public meetings and running a committee room I was elected to that position in 1981, at a time on polling day. I was 18 and I learned a lot of the when I was organising many of the battleground skills about being an agent from John Spiller, who wards in the city, we were in control of the city had been John Pardoe’s agent in North Cornwall council and fighting the Militants. I worked and had organised some of the by-election wins of with a small group that included Trevor Jones the early 1970s. We gained the seat with an 8,132 (council leader), Mike Storey (his deputy), Ann majority, and the result ensured the survival of McTegart (the chair), Chris Davies and others, the Liberal Party in the general election that came and I recruited many activists to the party from five weeks after the by-election. the university who were crucial to our campaigns at that time. You were David’s agent at the Mossley Hill constituency in 1983 in which you achieved a 14 per cent swing. How? Who were your mentors and what did you learn from The Boundary Commission process led to Edge them? Hill being split up. We didn’t know what the new Cyril Carr, our first councillor and first council boundaries would be until the summer of 1982, leader, was my original mentor. He and his team and the new ‘Mossley Hill’ seat was considered were responsible for the invention of Focus leaflets, an impossible prospect for us as we had been on in Liverpool’s Church ward. He helped my family deposit-losing level in two-thirds of it at the with casework, discovered my interest in politics previous general election. The organisation in the and current affairs, and got me to attend the ward new seat was very small, but in less than a year I AGM, at which he suggested I become treasurer. increased the number of active members working I wasn’t yet 14, but I was good at maths at school. in it from under 100 to over 600. There were Trevor Jones spread the Focus-style campaigning council by-elections in two of the five wards (one across Liverpool and then across much of the of them after the death of Cyril Carr) and I acted country as he oversaw by-election triumphs such as agent in them both, securing over 60 per cent as Sutton & Cheam in 1972. I learned a great deal of the vote in each case. I ran the local election from him about campaigning, as well as from campaigns in each of the five wards and our David Alton, who was Trevor’s protégé for a long aggregate vote share in the 1983 local elections time. was 49 per cent. It was very hard work. I didn’t have a day off in the six months before polling You worked on David Alton’s Edge Hill by-election day, as we built a delivery network capable of campaign. What was your role? How did we achieve delivering over twenty leaflets to every household victory? in that time, as well as knocking on almost every We gained the The Labour MP for Edge Hill was threatening to door in the constituency twice. I concentrated on seat with an 8,132 resign and force a by-election from the summer of writing the leaflets and building the organisation 1977 onwards in protest at his deselection. It was a whilst David Alton was high profile as a brilliant majority, and the difficult time for the Liberal Party, and Edge Hill local MP. I was just very determined, and at 22 was one of very few realistic hopes that we had of nobody told me that I couldn’t run a campaign result ensured winning in a general election. I worked continu- and manage 600 volunteers. ously as a volunteer until the by-election in March the survival of the 1979, following the death of the Labour MP. In By 1984 you were one of the party’s national area agents. many ways, David ran his own campaign, hav- What lessons did you bring from your Liverpool days? Liberal Party in ing overseen the winning of all four wards within In 1984, John Spiller pressed me to work for the the constituency. I had numerous minor roles, party nationally with a brief based on spreading the general elec- as this was well before the era of the party send- the kind of campaigning that I had been involved tion that came ing in paid professionals to by-elections, although with in Liverpool across more of the country and most of the staff in the very small Liberal Party in parliamentary by-elections. John wanted me to five weeks after Organisation Headquarters came up for the last become chief agent in time, but that didn’t hap- couple of weeks. My roles ranged from running pen as he became ill and Andy Ellis combined that the by-election. Journal of Liberal History 95 Summer 2017 23 The Changing Face of Liberal Democrat Campaigning job with being secretary-general. I was based in In Greenwich, we At first none, because the Campaigns Department the East Midlands where I doubled our number had been reduced from thirteen members of staff of councillors in my time there. I also did a lot had a truly inte- to just one (me), as financial difficulties followed of training for the party in the region and at the electoral failures and political and organisational annual Liberal Assemblies. But I found the 1987 grated Alliance difficulties in the first eighteen months of the new general election campaign very frustrating as campaign for party. My objective was simply survival for the there were no winnable seats within the East Mid- party, and this had to be achieved with very mod- lands region and a rigid regional structure limited the first and only est resources. my involvement across the country. Moreover One of my first priorities was working with the national [Alliance] campaign struggled with time. Alec McGi- Andrew Stunell and what had become the Asso- two leaders [David Steel and David Owen] and ciation of Social & Liberal Democrat Councillors, couldn’t agree any effective political messaging. van of the SDP running a series of campaigns and activist train- ing days all over the country, branded as ‘People You were a member of the by-election campaign teams at was a brilliant First’. The aim was to train members in success- West Derbyshire, 1986, and Greenwich, 1987. We came ful community-campaigning techniques and in second in Derbyshire and won in Greenwich. What were agent and he had ways that might help the party gain attention and the factors at work in the two by-elections and why were a team including rebuild trust locally after the disappointments and we able to win in Greenwich but not in Derbyshire? acrimony that followed previous electoral fail- After being the winning agent in nine consecu- Peter Chegwyn, ures. We had a great deal of success which ensured tive [council] by-elections, the first one which that by 1990 we were again doing almost as well I lost was West Derbyshire in 1986, when after Bill MacCormick in local elections as we had done in the Alliance three recounts we lost by just 100 votes. It was a years, and made major advances in 1991. difficult three-way fight, and we were not helped and me writing I also prioritised parliamentary by-elections by the former Tory MP, Matthew Parris, pre- to help the party recover its reputation and regain tending that Labour were the challengers. I was most of the leaf- credibility. Every by-election was fought with a overstretched and I decided in future that I should view to either maintaining our share of the vote concentrate on being campaign director/manager lets and gener- from the 1987 high level, or to win if we could.
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