General Election report Agent and Candidate AGENTS REPORT Kim Taylor as General Election Agent. This is my first report as an Agent, and may well be my only report as I volunteered to be election agent for the General Election Only. The Agents prime function is to ensure that · The candidates nomination papers are correctly completed and filed on time · All campaign literature/communications is legally compliant · All expenditure is controlled and compliant · Have oversight of donations and ensure all are compliant · File election expense accounts on time with authorities The agent has legal responsibilities for this and noncompliance results in personal criminal conviction and significant fines. Historically in Basingstoke the Agent as also controlled all campaign activity acting as campaign manager and also written and produced all campaign leaflets, adverts etc. I did not feel this high-level command and control approach was appropriate for a snap election and that we needed to adopt a more team approach and cascade campaigning activities. This would also be an important approach to test in view of the forthcoming all out election which would affect every ward and resources would be stretched thin. A team approach was adopted with Paula Wibrew and Stephanie Grant acted as Campaign Managers on the ground and Martin Heath as Social Media Campaign manager and Andrew McCormick ensuring donation were received and processed legally. It was the intention that for every ward this would be cascaded down further with each ward nominating a Campaign Co-ordinator from existing candidates/councillors to coordinate the activities in their ward such as the management of volunteers, delivering leaflets, canvasing and the Polling day activities. This approach will be vital for the all outs in May and so needed to be practiced during the General Election. Unfortunately, co-operation was lacking in the wards of Norden, Popley East, and Brookvale which represent the Labour vote of Basingstoke. Following the defection of those councillors we now know why that was the case. Fortunately, the Women’s Forum was on hand and its small but determined membership campaigned their hearts out closing those gaps. This did mean that time was taken away from canvasing to achieve this. My thanks goes to our Councillors and Local Candidates who did step up, the Women’s Forum and all the fantastic members who worked incredibly hard. All of our thanks should also go to our very excellent Candidate Kerena Marchant. In the six week campaign we delivered 35, 000 leaflets through volunteer effort, sent letters to postal voters had a freepost leaflet delivered to 52,500 homes, delivered 10,000 GOTV cards to known labour supporters in key wards, made contact with about 900 people on the doorstep, placed online and Gazette adverts, had a social media campaign and mounted a polling day effort to knock up voters to remind them to vote. We spent a little over £8,000. Outcomes The results are to be expected in the light of the various difficulties with a short campaign heavily affected by Brexit. We contained the Tory vote, maintaining Labour as second place and the only convincing challenger. Despite a massive attempt by the Lib Dems to challenge us they remain a poor third. It was clear from canvassing in wards that traditionally vote labour in local elections that the GE was heavily influenced by Brexit, and that many of these labour voters were “leavers”. The opportunity was taken to deliver leaflets and canvass in wards where we do not normally have a presence such as Hatchwarren and Beggerwood, Rooksdown and Chineham. There was a more supportive feedback from those areas. As a result of our activities in these areas we saw a significant increase in new members from Hatchwarren and Beggerwood, and Chineham. On the night of the count we had about 10 volunteers to help undertake the sampling exercise to get an idea of which wards our votes come from. This is about a third of what is required to do this effectively but in general terms our experience on the doorstep was reflected in the intelligence we gathered on the door. Our traditional areas voted Try in the General Election. People vote differently in a general election to how they vote in a Local Election. Lessons to learn Six weeks is a very short time to try to mount an effective campaign, New wards will be double the sizes for the all outs and campaigning teams need to be bigger GOTV cards need to be delivered over the week before the election because wards are bigger An effective polling day effort cannot be mounted with less than 8-10 people per ward in the newer bigger wards That a team of approx. 25-30 people are needed to manage the count effectively and gain usable management information Mass leafleting drops can deliver to a ward (new ward size) in one day where there are two sessions with about 20 people involved More mass drops and teams are needed as wards will double in size to about 5000 each. Councillors/Candidates cannot deliver all their leaflets on their own Hatchwarren and Beggarwood may be a potential target ward for the future. Kerena Marchant Candidates General Election Report Basingstoke CLP The run up to the election The PPC selection took place in February/March 2019 with an all woman’s shortlist. Basingstoke was not an ESS. This meant that I was selected 10 months before the election. In my view a candidate in any constituency needs at least 2 years to build up a campaign and this view comes from sharing experience and campaigning strategies with the PPCs in ESS who welcomed me into their group. However, our end result in a leave constituency was better than many of theirs, despite the shorter run up time. It could be said that choosing a candidate who does not live in the constituency is a disadvantage and I do concur with this. Your place of residence is on the ballot paper and this influences the perception of some of the voters. However, I was familiar with Basingstoke having spent a great deal of time in Basingstoke over the years. Due to working part time, I was able to spend 3 days a week in the constituency from pre-selection to September when I was full time in the constituency. I feel that 2-3 days a week is what any candidate local or otherwise should spend on the campaign and this should cover – meeting local groups and being part of them (this builds up trust and gets people talking); taking on casework, attending CLP and EC meetings, getting involved in local campaigns, social media campaign, local press exposure about local issues and holding the Tories to account, door knocking and leafleting supporting local councillors and as part of the campaign. The timing of my selection was also not ideal as it clashed with local elections, European elections and councillor selections for critical all outs, where it was best to put the election campaign on hold so it didn’t distract from these. Ideally every election campaign should be a long campaign with an advance door knocking with a deep listening conversion script and leafleting starting at least 2 years prior to the election. This is critical with where the Labour Party is now. Our traditional voters moved away from us in the GE and new votes gained are in areas we have yet to collect data on and identify voters e.g. Hatchwarren, Beggarwood, Chineham, Rooksdown. A candidate also needs to work alongside councillors to build trust in traditional Labour areas e.g Buckskin, Popley, South Ham, Norden, Winklebury, Brighton Hill. Inclusion in councillor’s leaflets in some of these areas helped. Getting involved with the local councillors with activities like litter picking and bulb planting also helps build trust. As a Disabled candidate I faced unfavourable treatment from the Government Equalities Department decision in July 2019 not to restore the Access to Elected Office Fund or divert the EnAble Fund to cover the GE. This took the Parties by surprise and there is no speedy and clear mechanism in the Labour Party for Disabled candidates to get Disabled access support from selection to election except via the slow and uncertain process of applying for bursaries and grants. Even when I successfully did get a grant in October, I still had been paying out of small savings for interpreters with some interpreters donating their time or holding on to invoices. Even now I am unclear the amount of the grant and how much I will get back. I was grateful to members of Basingstoke CLP donating their time as interpreters or communicators. This saved on interpreting support and I am grateful to these CLP members. I was very disadvantaged at conference. I went to conference to network and get funding and endorsements for the campaign. However, the interpreting support promised by the Party did not materialise and the communicators I booked at the 11th hour were not allowed in due to security. I’m grateful to Disability Labour, DPAC and John McDonnell for taking this up. To sum up, in the run up to the election I spent 2-3 days in the constituency and at least another day at home on correspondence, case work, research and administration. It would be fair to say this was a full-time occupation. What I achieved was: · A social media campaign with a following of 600 on both FB and twitter · An election video that was donated · A web page that a member built · Regular attendance at community groups e.g.