Cllr Simon Phipps is the Chairman of Dudley Council Conservative Group’s local election campaigns and acted as campaign manager in the Brockmoor & Pensnett by-election.
Less than a week before Christmas, a three-way battle between Labour, Reform and the Conservatives took place in the heart of the Black Country, Dudley.
A ward which saw Labour return three councillors just seven months prior had become marginal on the back of an extraordinarily unpopular Labour Government and Reform’s surge in the polls. The task for local Conservatives to cut through to the electorate after facing a near wipeout in the borough at the general election couldn’t have been tougher.
News of the impending resignation of Labour’s Deputy Leader in the borough had filtered through in early November. The local Conservative Association in Dudley took the initiative by selecting early and selecting the right candidate. Alex Dale, who had run in the ward earlier that year, had local pedigree and a serious work ethic. Juggling his job as a carer and family commitments, his energy on the doorstep and familiarity with those who answered the door was infectious.
However, we couldn’t ignore that there remained significant apathy amongst traditional conservative voters, and not just because the poll was taking place so close to Christmas. The Labour attack line of the last general election was still resonating, which was that Conservatives had failed during 14 years of government. This is something our Party could and should have challenged far more strongly at the time. Adding to that pressure was tough decisions taken by the Conservative-run Council to balance the books which featured heavily on opposition literature.
However, a relentless flow of Conservative literature focussed on key local issues and points of contention amongst the community. Supporting pensioners this winter, saving much-loved green spaces in the face of national planning changes, keeping a police front desk open at the local police station. All these became central issues amongst our core voters as we peppered the letterboxes with reasons to back a local campaigner who will at the very least voice the concerns that Labour have ignored.
Clearly, we got under the skin of local Labour councillors who took to social media to denounce the Government and Prime Minister over their actions on the winter fuel payments. Whilst Reform and Labour focussed their attacks on the Conservative Council, we had managed to tap into the general feeling of buyer’s remorse with the Government and local people’s desire to have an active, local and passionate advocate to stand up for them.
Rumours from the opposition campaigns suggested Labour’s feedback whilst canvassing was a constant flow of Reform switchers, angry with the Government. Whereas our battle was to win back lifelong Conservatives with our local messaging about how these issues affect people in Brockmoor & Pensnett and convince waverers that a vote for Reform risks letting Labour win.
Our targeted efforts to squeeze Reform waverers ultimately paid off, with a clear indication that traditional Labour areas were far more likely to vote for Reform than areas with traditionally high levels of Conservative support. Ultimately, this helped tip the balance in our favour and elect Alex with a majority of 86 votes, on just over a 15 per cent turnout. Labour’s vote share dropped by over 34 per cent, but Reform still took 30 per cent from a standing start.
We are under no illusions about the result of this by-election. We know that we still face an uphill battle to retain our core support across the borough. It was a relatively small majority on a very low turnout just before Christmas. But the campaign machine in Dudley, which I am proud to lead, has a history of grinding out results against the national swing with high impact, hyper local, literature heavy campaigns.
It’s not just Dudley Borough that has a history of outperforming the national swing. Just a few months ago the Black Country had an elected Mayor in Andy Street, the vast majority of Conservative MPs and half of local councils had majority Conservative control. It’s been a tough year for us, but this result is a small step on the path to regaining majority control of the council, retaking the mayoralty, and winning back seats like Dudley that we need to form the next government.
This result shows that even in Labour’s strongest areas, Conservatives can get stuck in with high energy, data driven campaigns featuring local issues and ultimately win. Tackling the Reform threat won’t be easy, but ending the year with a Conservative gain in Dudley will spur us on to work even harder at our next elections in 2026.