Why break a habit of a lifetime, I wondered as I headed to Dagenham to campaign on what would turn out to be a day the tectonic plates of British politics shifted. It was clear my time would be best spent in my old stomping ground of Barking and Dagenham, where my friends were fighting hard to stop a populist, hard-right party taking control of the borough.
Having grown up and lived in nearby Ilford most of my life, I moved to Barking in 2005 and witnessed the surge of support for the BNP that led to 12 of their candidates becoming councillors in the following year’s local elections. This sent a shockwave through the political system. It led me to quit my job and to go to work for Searchlight, which later became Hope not Hate. There, I worked with Nick Lowles, running the campaign that saw off the fascists in Barking and Dagenham and across the country, where it won more than 100 councillors. In 2010 the BNP was smashed in Dagenham by Labour, which won all 51 council seats. I got elected and became the youngest councillor as well as the chief whip. A footnote in history will record that our Labour group assistant was one Morgan McSweeney.
A Rocky start
Back on familiar turf in the socialist republic of Village ward, where Phil Waker was still a councillor and a living embodiment of working-class municipal socialism. I wondered how many good people would be swept away in what could be a teal tsunami. As I left on Thursday evening to vote in Mayesbrook ward, I knew something was under way as the polling station had a queue outside. I stopped to see Councillor Rocky Gill, who was facing a tough fight in Longbridge ward – against the Greens, not the Tories, as it had been when I was the local ward Labour branch secretary.
Phil prevailed, and so did Rocky. But Reform made a large dent in Barking and Dagenham, as did the Greens. Across the country, multi-party politics broke through the first-past-the-post system, even in the once-Red Citadel of London.
The weeks ahead
In January I launched a weekly podcast, Next Week in Westminster, with the former Tory minister and deputy chief whip Marcus Jones. It looks ahead to the legislative programme in the coming week, what’s happening in Committee Corridor and any interesting Westminster Hall debates, and explains the byzantine ways and means of parliament. MPs text weekly to say how grateful they are for a proper guide to what’s coming up in the chamber; I, for one, wish I’d had it when I was an MP. With the election results looking seismic, I was chuffed to have got three brilliant guests on the show: Ben Riley-Smith from the Telegraph, the New Statesman’s Tom McTague and the previous, long-standing editor of the Statesman, Jason Cowley (now at the Sunday Times).
The morning had started with an unexpected early wake-up call from the Prime Minister. I scarpered to make coffee so the missus could offer her counsel to the PM privately, while I wondered just what would unfold over the coming days. The podcast recording went well – unlike the election results. Sadly, it turns out my beloved party of the working class no longer has much working-class support, and it also took a shoeing from the professional classes. The Greens and Reform were rampant across Labour’s heartlands, and 100 years of history were undone as the Welsh first minister lost her seat in the Senedd election.
Labour’s other race
What better way to lift the spirits after a historic thrashing than watching my partner tackle a 5km run interspersed with hilariously horrific obstacles including tankers of iced water and dangling electric wires. She was taking part in a Tough Mudder to raise funds for the facilities at my nephew’s Send school. Sadly, she was unable pass the baton to me as I had torn a calf muscle hiking on a mountain in the Lake District a few weeks before. Still, I was primed to record the whole thing in high-definition slow-mo. I asked Angela what she wanted for a late breakfast before she attempted the hill runs and mud trenches. She said she was fine – she’d had a coffee, some Haribo squishies and a fag.
As she ran over the finishing line, glowing and beaming with pride, I gave her a huge hug, laughing at her sheer bloody determination. Obstacles cleared, she collected her medal and we enjoyed the sunshine, thankful that there was no phone signal at a moment MPs, general secretaries and journalists were all bombarding us. Tough Mudder indeed.
[Further reading: Who could beat Keir Starmer in a leadership election?]
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