It is good to know that Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s campaign director, is already planning for the next general election (Labour to fight 2029 election ‘like an insurgent’ as preparations begin, 13 July). As the victors of 1906 and 1945 learned, landslide majorities can easily disappear.
However, I beg the party to learn one lesson from the 2024 election, and that is that Labour does not need to belittle local parties and members in order to secure victory.
Never again should large sections of our party be publicly dismissed as a non-priority. Never again must local parties and their members be denied any role in candidate selection. Never again should masses of selections be made so near to an election.
Most of all, I beg that never again should the central party try to bully local parties by removing, at the height of campaigning, essential campaign tools.
This was done to compel members of local parties to switch more of their campaigning activity to designated battleground seats. It was counterproductive, of course, with those who had been willing to help duly withdrawing their support.
Members of the Labour party are volunteers, not enlisted foot soldiers to be ordered around. The party’s targeting strategy worked and it would have done so without disheartening so many members.
Roger Truelove
Chair, Sittingbourne and Sheppey Labour party
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