Gio Spinella is a former councillor in Camden.
Tip O’Neil, the US Speaker from the 1980s once said: “All politics is local!” – stressing the point that every elected politician – especially in a first-past-the-post system- is present because sent to Congress or Parliament by a constituency based on its local issues and the promises that candidate made to address them. An elected politician who neglects their constituency soon loses the opportunity to comment on anything else- except for from Twitter/X of course!
It is a truism of British politics that the party in opposition cares about local government and the party in administration doesn’t.
This is particularly true in the case of the Conservatives who have spent more time focusing on Westminster and less on the borough, district and county councils that so greatly impact the daily lives of the British public.
This is not to say that the Conservatives don’t care about local government. The armies of local councillors have been the main suppliers of activists, campaign issues and canvass data for decades. But inevitably the more ambitious Conservatives sooner or later will attempt to make a beeline to parliament, where they hope their track record in local government will help them ascend the ministerial ladder.
This doesn’t always work, and many a council leader, reduced to backbencher status, often soon misses the time when their opinions actually mattered, and they could make positive changes to people’s lives. Which still doesn’t prevent the various councillors from making the jump or trying to anyway.
Conservatives have always been leery of how opposition politicians have often used local government not (just) as the administrative means to deliver public services to its residents, but also as platforms to voice particular campaigns and issues and their overall opposition to government spending policies. This is amplified by the creation of the devolved governments- of which the Conservatives over the last 25 years have controlled exactly none, and to a lesser extent the mayoralties, where the Conservatives have a better track record of victory- if not perhaps as spectacular as Labour’s.
The odds are stacked against us and the road to regaining the British people’s trust is a long and tricky one. But there is one way such a journey can be at least started and that is by focusing on the eternal Silver medal of British politics, local government.
The causes of the Conservatives’ defeats are many and will be discussed and dissected by more authoritative voices than my own, but two things that came through were the public’s lack of faith in our integrity and in our competence. How we got there I again leave to others to dissect however these two aspects are central to how we survive and regenerate. We can no longer control issues such as immigration and public finances and foreign affairs. These are now Labour concerns. But what we can control is how the public see us on the issues of competency and integrity. And we can do that by delivering good, clean competent government at the local level.
Local government impacts British lives more directly and on a more daily level than the politics of Westminster. Think rubbish bins and potholes in streets. But also think about state schools, social housing, social services, parks, night lighting, the list goes on and on. And a host of Conservative councillors, Assembly-members, Senedd and Scottish MSPs who work to deliver those services in sterling quality will go a long way to regain the British public’s trust in our party and in its people, a trust that the last few years has been battered.
Local government wins can also give a good feel as to a party’s path to parliamentary success. The Conservatives’ last march back to government was preceded by hundreds of victories in council seats. Indeed, such was their success that the Conservatives remained the largest party in local government until at least 2019 before dropping year on year.
Of course, such a translation between council victories and parliamentary victories isn’t guaranteed. In May of 2017, the Conservatives lead by Theresa May scored major local government victories across England, Wales and Scotland, only to falter a month later at the June General election.
However, establishing local track records of delivery and probity is the first step- necessary but not sufficient- on the journey back to credibility and ultimately government.
This would also help us attract energetic and ambitious- even if only locally ambitious- council candidates and new activists, as our party needs to replenish our most important capital, the human capital.
And the various ambitious PPCs from the past elections who see their path to N10 clearly in their eyes and find local government somehow beneath them would need to be told that for a while at least, the doors into Westminster will offer but a very narrow crack open to Conservative candidates. An office in local government may be the only one accessible to Conservatives for the near future.
In this CCHQ can play a major role. Money will be tight for quite some time, but where the resources are available, they should be used to help local associations with their candidate selections, their literature, their voter targeting and their canvassing.
Certain targets could be set- such as in London winning back Barnet, Westminster and Wandsworth borough councils, securing an outright majority in Croydon, winning Enfield and maybe setting the party locally on a path to win back Hammersmith and Fulham, Merton and Redbridge. And that is less than 2 years away.
In Scotland it would be great to become the largest party in cities such as once Edinburgh- which we were until 2022- and increase our council presence in Glasgow- currently down to two lionhearts in a sea of socialism and secessionism. And regain the status of largest party in many other councils. Maybe we could try to reclaim the borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester.
And win back the mayoralties of the West Midlands and above all London- although a conversation about London is perhaps something for another day.
Our surviving MPs can also play a central role in this. They are now the party’s standard bearers. And if they can’t do more than comment and object on national issues- and do a lot of important work in the select committees- they can help rebuild our party’s infrastructure by drawing in the men and women that we will need. A charismatic MP and even PPC can go a long way towards rallying the troops, both old and new.
We don’t know how long we have in opposition. Other than critiquing where necessary and offering a credible alternative when we can, we will have no say in the big decisions of our country future for at least five years. And we will have no control over them. But we can exert control over ourselves and in the short term, proving at the most local level what good and capable Conservatives can achieve can go a long way towards re-gaining that national trust without which we will never govern again.