Cllr James Esses represents High Barnet Ward on Barnet Council.
“The Conservative Party is dead”.
Not in Barnet it isn’t. In fact, it’s thriving.
The results of the May local elections offer irrefutable proof of this. In an age of heightened disillusionment with politics, increased fracturing of party loyalty, and Reform snapping at the heels of the traditional parties, Barnet Conservatives received 102,246 votes (35.4 per cent of the popular vote) – higher than any other party. Crucially, we increased the number of councillors on Barnet Council by nine to 31, swinging Barnet Council to No Overall Control after just one Labour term.
In my ward of High Barnet, which recorded an above-average turnout of 51.9%, I topped the list with a higher vote share than the incumbent Labour candidate.
Make no mistake about it, in this new multi-party system of UK politics, nothing is safe, and the campaign in Barnet required a significant amount of hard-work and campaigning (I don’t think my legs will ever truly recover after the number of steps I walked in the run-up to polling day!). But for conservatism to make such a resurgence in Barnet (and indeed in many other local areas– see Westminster, Wandsworth, Harrow, Bromley, and Fareham – to name just a few), demonstrates a core resilience.
Over the course of the campaign, several common themes emerged on the doorstep:
Firstly, to put it mildly, there is no love lost for Labour. Swathes of voters who had voted Labour for the first time in 2022 told me: “never again”. Having seen what local life is like under Labour, they didn’t want to repeat it (mirroring what we are witnessing nationally).
Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised by the reception that I as the Conservative candidate received on the doorstep. Whilst voters remain critical of how the Conservative Party behaved under previous leadership, once that has been acknowledged and owned by me as the candidate, they are keen to engage in a positive, forward-looking conversation about what is possible under a Conservative Party led by passion and principle.
Thirdly, people love Kemi. The support for her is overwhelming, with voters particularly enjoying the way in which she runs rings around hapless Starmer in PMQs. Crucially, there is consensus that both she and the Party underneath her are improving like a fine wine with every day that passes.
Fourthly, those tempted to vote for Reform do so, by and large, out of protest, not out of conviction. I was frequently told by prospective Reform voters that they were thinking of doing so because they wanted to express frustration with British politics. However, they neither felt that Reform offers a strong policy agenda, nor has the foundation to offer stability if they were to get into power.
The count itself was a tense affair, with a level of unpredictability that is now the status quo in British politics. Waiting for the result to be announced undoubtedly knocked a few months off my life expectancy. Although voters are clearly engaged (shown by above-average turnout across the board), they are also conflicted. The number of split-voting was significantly higher than usual. I observed many ballots in multi-member wards voting for both Reform and Green or Conservative and Labour. Whether simply a protest or just exemplifying a state of internal conflict, it can be difficult to make sense of.
This produces more complex outcomes too. My ward of High Barnet is now a split-ward, with one Conservative Councillor and one Labour Councillor. This mirrors the borough, given that we have now become a Council under No Overall Control (an outcome that is increasingly likely in local elections across the country).
Yet, even with the tension on the day, I cannot describe the feeling when I learnt that I had won. This is the first time I have ever been up for election and seeing my name there on that ballot paper was surreal.
It’s also a reminder of how brutal a game politics can be. In my day job as a psychotherapist, I generally caution my clients against all-or-nothing, black-or-white thinking. But the British electoral system is a cruel mistress, with clear winners and losers. At the count, I witnessed both jubilation and misery. One ward’s outcome was decided by just seven votes…
Going forward, as the Conservative representative in High Barnet, my ambition is to get the fundamental things right. Our roads need sorting, our high street needs rejuvenating, our green belt needs protecting, our finances need safeguarding, and our community needs uniting. More than anything, residents deserve representatives who will engage with them honestly and transparently.
Nationally, I believe that the Conservative Party is the only party that can truly deliver on what the people of Britain need: lower migration, preservation of our national identity, getting the economy moving again, becoming tougher on crime and disorder, and representing us with pride on the international stage.
More personally, given my years of campaigning against the impact of gender ideology on child safeguarding, I believe that the Conservatives are the only mainstream party that recognise and will protect the importance of biological sex. I have spent years collaborating with Kemi on protecting women and children and I truly trust her principles.
It is an honour and a privilege to represent the residents in my hometown. Barnet is turning blue once again. Before long, I hope to be able to say the same about Britain.