British politics may feel like it’s in flux – with parliament prorogued and a Brexit deadline looming – but one thing is clear: a general election is coming. Parliament is paralysed and the Conservatives no longer have a majority. And the campaign is already in full flow.
From spurious spending reviews to choreographed speeches with police as props, Boris Johnson and the Tories are obviously in full election mode, and the nature of their authoritarian, populist programme is clear: Johnson is going to offer voters a hard Brexit, brutal borders, state racism and a ramped-up culture war, all distracting from yet another obscene transfer of wealth to the richest in society. And with parliament out of session and the prime minister having a free run of the sympathetic broadcasters – he’s likely to get a hearing too.
This is all the more reason for Labour to start our campaign right now. While they have the money and much of the media, we have people power. This will be on show in the weeks ahead – when Labour members will come to conference and help to write the party’s radical manifesto. Grassroots campaigns are putting forward an ambitious policy programme, from the Green New Deal to abolishing private schools, from a four-day week to shutting down detention centres. The conference will be a showcase for our movement to deliver a radically fairer and more prosperous society – this can drive Labour on to victory.
But alongside this platform, we need to start mobilising strategically and energising the hundreds of thousands of Labour members around the country to get involved. In 2017 the Conservatives thought they had the election in the bag before they were blindsided by the popularity of Labour’s investment-focused manifesto and the surge of young voters who pushed Labour’s vote to 40%, causing the Tories to lose their majority. Young people flocked to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour because it offered them real solutions in a seemingly hopeless world – the abolition of tuition fees, empowerment of renters, climate action.
That’s why the Tories are trying to disenfranchise them now. Last week it was revealed that Johnson’s bid for an early election in October was based in part on the desire to prevent students registering to vote at their university addresses – effectively preventing many new voters from taking part in the election.
This shouldn’t surprise us. The Tories are ruthless and they know their vulnerabilities. Seats such as Newcastle-under-Lyme and Canterbury only went red in 2017 because they are home to large numbers of students at university and in further education. In fact, we’ve identified five seats that will swing to Labour if just 19,000 young voters can be registered – including Loughborough, Truro and Falmouth and the cities of London and Westminster. Indeed, Johnson himself will be vulnerable in Uxbridge and South Ruislip – with a majority of only 5,034, and facing up to thousands of students at Brunel University London – also based in Uxbridge – who are likely to swing behind his opponent, Ali Milani, the 24-year-old Labour candidate and former National Union of Students vice-president.
Young people are going to be crucial in the fight against Johnson’s authoritarian ambitions – that’s why Momentum is launching a campaign to register tens of thousands of young people to vote in target marginals across the country. This will include a new website where students can obtain advice on whether registering with their home address or their university address is more tactical for swinging marginal seats towards Labour, combined with targeted Facebook advertising in key marginals. Digital campaigning was key to Labour’s success in 2017 and it can be again in 2019.
The #stopthecoup protests have galvanised and united Labour’s base in opposition to Johnson’s anti-democratic, establishment power grab. They have already severely destabilised the Johnson premiership, culminating in his garbled speech on the steps of Downing Street drowned out by the chants of protesters. Now we must translate this anger and energy into power.
The Conservatives have become notorious for their attempts to restrict voting rights – following the playbook of Donald Trump’s Republican party. But we will build on the million people who have registered to vote since Johnson became prime minister and empower the UK’s young people to vote for a future they can believe in. The next election starts here.
• Laura Parker is Momentum’s national coordinator
