Clark Vasey is co-founder and Executive Director of Blue Collar Conservatism, and a councillor in Redbridge.
When I set up Blue Collar Conservatism in 2012 it was heavily rooted in the experiences of my hometown of Carlisle. Long before the collapse of the Red Wall, the red brick of Carlisle had been knocked out in 2010. It demonstrated that Labour voters were sick of being taken for granted by Labour. Blue Collar was established to encourage the realignment of working class voters away from Labour and towards the Conservatives. We argued strongly that this had to be done by making genuinely Conservative policies deliver for working people and not by offering a Labour-lite agenda.
2019 should have been the moment of realignment, but a combination of the wrong policies and the wrong MPs meant we were turfed out, with Reform looking more likely to benefit from this realignment away from Labour. Talking right and governing left sums up the greatest strategic mistake our party has ever made.
Last year my co-founder, Esther McVey, and I began a refresh of Blue Collar, because we believe that a truly Conservative agenda for working people is more important now than it has ever been and perhaps most importantly because doing this means winning back Reform voters. Despite what groups like Prosper say there is no magic collection of voters waiting in the wings to replace those lost to Reform and as heartening as a recovery in London is, on its own it will never deliver a majority.
This brings me to my journey from Carlisle to Woodford. Carlisle will forever be etched on my soul, but marrying a North London Greek girl has kept me south and brought me to the nicest bit of the London-Essex border. It was here that this proud Cumbrian just won a seat in Redbridge, where we were just a few votes shy of doubling our majority to 1404.
Ours was a relentlessly anti-Labour campaign. Within our borough, Woodford has long been neglected in favour of Ilford and nothing sums this up more than the closure of a bridge over the Central Line which has cut our area in two. Closed for nearly three years it is pushing traffic onto disintegrating side roads and costing residents through longer journeys. We were not asking for anything special, not a lido, a skate park or a climbing wall, we just wanted our local piece of infrastructure fixed.
Had the bridge been in Ilford there it would have been fixed long ago, but Redbridge Labour pushed this off and Sir Iain Duncan Smith and local Conservatives have led the fight. When our FIX OUR BRIDGE posters began appearing in local windows, we knew our message that beating Redbridge Labour was getting through.
Even when our canvassing results showed us losing votes to Reform, in an area which feels as much Essex as it does London, we did not shift our focus from Labour. We didn’t attack Reform or change our leaflets to make them the threat in the hope of picking up voters from elsewhere. We stuck firmly to Labour failing our area and it is the Conservatives who have the answers. Reform’s nationally focused leaflets certainly helped with this.
Speaking to Reform voters my message was always I get it, I understand why you feel we let you down, but look at what we are saying and who has the answers for the future. Locally this worked and Reform ended up being a very distant second. We even extended our Fix Our Bridge campaign into the neighbouring ward and picked up two seats.
This was a well-run local campaign, but the national picture shone through. Under Kemi Badenoch the Conservatives are doing the work and it is us and not Reform who are developing a coherent agenda for our country. Reform has some impressive if gimmicky policies, but it’s not developing into a programme for our country. They have yet to come close to translating angst into answers and I am not convinced they will.
By 2029 if Labour hold it together that long, what will matter most will not be 14 years in the past, but the five years beyond and on this basis we can win and do so with those voters currently looking to Reform. One phrase I heard a lot from Reform Voters, even those I couldn’t bring round this time was – ‘I do like Kemi’. Nigel Farage is a great campaigner, but we have the better prospect for Prime Minister and on this basis we can win.
And so my thoughts return to Carlisle.
London was great for us and we must celebrate that. Reform are undoubtedly weaker here and have a poor pick for Mayor. We should look hopefully to the next mayoral elections. However, on its own it is not a route to Government. For that we need Carlisle and many more besides. Most are currently held by Labour, but as it stands more likely to switch to Reform than us.
Groups like Prosper are offering a comfort blanket fantasy that votes lost to Reform can be made up elsewhere. That is a route to us becoming a minor party. Labour is the enemy, but we need to show that it is us, not Reform. that is the best route to defeating them and delivering the change our country needs. To do this we need Blue Collar Conservatism. A genuinely Conservative agenda focused relentlessly on creating a participatory economy which delivers for working people.
It is an approach for the whole country. Indeed, speaking to the proudly self-made and self-employed of Woodford, did not feel any different from a conversation with a voter in Cumbria. On this basis I am delighted to have Broxbourne MP, Lewis Cocking, as our new Parliamentary Chairman. Lewis knows more than most about a great set of local election results.
When we prove that we are the best vehicle for working people we will see that shift from Reform back to the Conservatives and with Kemi at the helm I know we can do it.
Clark Vasey is co-founder and Executive Director of Blue Collar Conservatism, and a councillor in Redbridge.
When I set up Blue Collar Conservatism in 2012 it was heavily rooted in the experiences of my hometown of Carlisle. Long before the collapse of the Red Wall, the red brick of Carlisle had been knocked out in 2010. It demonstrated that Labour voters were sick of being taken for granted by Labour. Blue Collar was established to encourage the realignment of working class voters away from Labour and towards the Conservatives. We argued strongly that this had to be done by making genuinely Conservative policies deliver for working people and not by offering a Labour-lite agenda.
2019 should have been the moment of realignment, but a combination of the wrong policies and the wrong MPs meant we were turfed out, with Reform looking more likely to benefit from this realignment away from Labour. Talking right and governing left sums up the greatest strategic mistake our party has ever made.
Last year my co-founder, Esther McVey, and I began a refresh of Blue Collar, because we believe that a truly Conservative agenda for working people is more important now than it has ever been and perhaps most importantly because doing this means winning back Reform voters. Despite what groups like Prosper say there is no magic collection of voters waiting in the wings to replace those lost to Reform and as heartening as a recovery in London is, on its own it will never deliver a majority.
This brings me to my journey from Carlisle to Woodford. Carlisle will forever be etched on my soul, but marrying a North London Greek girl has kept me south and brought me to the nicest bit of the London-Essex border. It was here that this proud Cumbrian just won a seat in Redbridge, where we were just a few votes shy of doubling our majority to 1404.
Ours was a relentlessly anti-Labour campaign. Within our borough, Woodford has long been neglected in favour of Ilford and nothing sums this up more than the closure of a bridge over the Central Line which has cut our area in two. Closed for nearly three years it is pushing traffic onto disintegrating side roads and costing residents through longer journeys. We were not asking for anything special, not a lido, a skate park or a climbing wall, we just wanted our local piece of infrastructure fixed.
Had the bridge been in Ilford there it would have been fixed long ago, but Redbridge Labour pushed this off and Sir Iain Duncan Smith and local Conservatives have led the fight. When our FIX OUR BRIDGE posters began appearing in local windows, we knew our message that beating Redbridge Labour was getting through.
Even when our canvassing results showed us losing votes to Reform, in an area which feels as much Essex as it does London, we did not shift our focus from Labour. We didn’t attack Reform or change our leaflets to make them the threat in the hope of picking up voters from elsewhere. We stuck firmly to Labour failing our area and it is the Conservatives who have the answers. Reform’s nationally focused leaflets certainly helped with this.
Speaking to Reform voters my message was always I get it, I understand why you feel we let you down, but look at what we are saying and who has the answers for the future. Locally this worked and Reform ended up being a very distant second. We even extended our Fix Our Bridge campaign into the neighbouring ward and picked up two seats.
This was a well-run local campaign, but the national picture shone through. Under Kemi Badenoch the Conservatives are doing the work and it is us and not Reform who are developing a coherent agenda for our country. Reform has some impressive if gimmicky policies, but it’s not developing into a programme for our country. They have yet to come close to translating angst into answers and I am not convinced they will.
By 2029 if Labour hold it together that long, what will matter most will not be 14 years in the past, but the five years beyond and on this basis we can win and do so with those voters currently looking to Reform. One phrase I heard a lot from Reform Voters, even those I couldn’t bring round this time was – ‘I do like Kemi’. Nigel Farage is a great campaigner, but we have the better prospect for Prime Minister and on this basis we can win.
And so my thoughts return to Carlisle.
London was great for us and we must celebrate that. Reform are undoubtedly weaker here and have a poor pick for Mayor. We should look hopefully to the next mayoral elections. However, on its own it is not a route to Government. For that we need Carlisle and many more besides. Most are currently held by Labour, but as it stands more likely to switch to Reform than us.
Groups like Prosper are offering a comfort blanket fantasy that votes lost to Reform can be made up elsewhere. That is a route to us becoming a minor party. Labour is the enemy, but we need to show that it is us, not Reform. that is the best route to defeating them and delivering the change our country needs. To do this we need Blue Collar Conservatism. A genuinely Conservative agenda focused relentlessly on creating a participatory economy which delivers for working people.
It is an approach for the whole country. Indeed, speaking to the proudly self-made and self-employed of Woodford, did not feel any different from a conversation with a voter in Cumbria. On this basis I am delighted to have Broxbourne MP, Lewis Cocking, as our new Parliamentary Chairman. Lewis knows more than most about a great set of local election results.
When we prove that we are the best vehicle for working people we will see that shift from Reform back to the Conservatives and with Kemi at the helm I know we can do it.