Our win in the Hersham Village Ward last month was the first Conservative gain from the LibDems since the election. Where Hersham leads…And it wasn’t even close. In May we trailed the LibDems by 140 votes; less than six months later, this was transformed into a majority for us of almost 300 on a turnout down from 40 per cent to a still respectable 27 per cent.
So, why the transformation in our fortunes? For the legion of Con Home activists, nothing I write will surprise but, boy, did all the elements work in our favour.
Let’s start with the truly incredible team of supporters from far and wide across Surrey, canvassing, delivering, doing the hard graft and on multiple occasions. If I named them all, this article would stretch to five pages, but they were all magnificent and we simply could not have won without them.
On hitting the Hersham bi-ways, the first surprise – and a pleasant one too – was the virtual disappearance of the visceral ‘toxicity’ of the national party. Knocking-up on July 4th was a truly dispiriting experience; everyone then was studiously polite, bordering on pitying, but emphatic, “sorry, we just can’t support you this time”. But now, while perhaps not gushing, many had firmly returned to the fold. I’ve sent a virtual thank you card to Sir Keir.
‘All politics is local’ as they say, and our by-election stood out in that regard.
From the start, the Lib Dems were seriously on the backfoot. Their young councillor (a perfectly affable chap) elected very narrowly in 2022 in the Surrey Yellow Wave, clearly hadn’t expected to win (he had no connections with Hersham) and probably was horrified. Now, he could still have thrown himself into the community and raised his profile or realised his mistake and quit early at the next appropriate election. But he did neither and only resigned after over two years on moving abroad in August, thus causing the by-election.
This mattered hugely as Hersham is currently facing monumental challenges, notably a proposed massive development in our much-loved Village Centre. Residents’ anger against it was near universal, unrelenting and brilliantly organised. I had made my implacable opposition known publicly for months and worked closely with the Campaign Group. So, we were on the right side on this mega single-issue that dominated almost every conversation on the doorsteps and to our advantage. (By the way, the application was unanimously refused last week with yours truly speaking passionately against it – first pledge honoured!)
And it hurt the Lib Dems. They seemed unengaged and almost half-hearted about the controversy. More broadly, this reinforced people’s perceptions that Hersham’s voice was just not being heard by the Lib Dem Council, that we didn’t count and were ignored. That our valued Centre for the Community was having its days and hours of opening significantly reduced. Who will stand up and fight for Hersham residents and be openly accessible and accountable to them? That was a key message rammed home in our highly focused literature – we had four deliveries during the short campaign, and they were all top-quality.
And the candidate himself? We all know that in local elections, many will cast their votes according to their national views. A shame but there you go. However, when turnout does fall to low levels, and there’s a critical local issue, then those who do take an interest in their local environment count for more. I’ve been a Hersham ‘fixture’ for almost 35 years, serving on and off as a councillor since 1991. For the last seven years, I’ve been privileged to be Hersham’s Surrey County Councillor and love the literally ‘pavement politics’ that entails, with a record of ‘getting things done’ for the patch. I walk everywhere – never learnt to drive -, am active in the local fb groups (but strictly non-partisan in my contributions), keenly support our Library and a wide variety of community organisations. So, I’m quite well known with folk happy to stop for a chat. Did it make the difference? Probably not, but every little helps.
The campaign itself was hard fought (Labour were only a token presence) and our opponents fought tenaciously to retain the seat producing the usual propaganda and outside helpers. But it was generally a clean and civilised affair – I’ve known the other two Lib Dem councillors for years, and we get on well personally. No complaints on that score.
Indeed, ‘twas a famous victory, but we still have a Lib Dem MP with a 12,000 majority and our Conservative Group currently has only 11 out of the 48 seats on the Borough Council. But something has stirred and we’re back in the game. 82 years ago, Winston Churchill declared, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” of our journey to return leafy Esher and Walton back to the Blue Team, from where we should never have let it go.