Farewell Martin Linton

Farewell Martin Linton

Mixed feelings run through Battersea Labour Club last night as ousted Labour MP Martin Linton announced that he would not be fighting, as a candidate, another election.

As I have noted before , the one-time Guardian journalist Linton while not the most charismatic of individuals has worked hard on local issues since being elected in 1997, and door step canvassing in the last campaign showed him to be more popular than Gordon Brown and his government generally  across the party divide.

With one of the smallest Labour majorities in the country, Linton faced, as he put it, a “mountain to climb” a year ago when opinion polls showed Cameron to be heading for a convincing majority. Sheer will and determination by local activists – many young volunteers included-, along with a skilful campaign (focused on Linton’s local campaigning record and unblemished expenses) ensured that the swing to the Tories proved less disastrous than had first been feared.

And yet as Linton told party members, “what happened was not that we lost support but that the Tories gained a lot of new supporters-including many people who were new in the area.”

As he went on, “the truth is that every election we fight in Battersea is more difficult than the last because the goalposts are constantly moving. More and more people move into luxury flats and while some of them   will be Labour supporters, more will be Tories.”

While such a comment sounds like the death knell for New Labour, it in fact recognises the failure this time round to convey a message capable of reaching out beyond the core vote, and the need to recover the spirit of 1997.

Last night Linton said the task of wining back Battersea from the Tories would be a long-drawn out grind which needed a fresh person at the helm – a candidate capable of winning cross-party support.

And yet the pressing reality of the new coalition extended its shadow over last night’s party pizza and disco. Among the Battersea Labour faithful, opinions varied. There were those who confessed –myself among them- to finding it reassuring that some of the issues that needed dealing with were already being embraced by the new government: egg. Scrapping ID cards and scrapping an extension of Heathrow. Others who felt betrayed by the Lib Dems decision to link up with the Tories when many Labour and Lib Dems voted tactically against Cameron.

Overwhelmingly was a feeling that we were entering unchartered waters in which another general election might be well called as the ‘happy partnership’ disintegrates over the nitty-gritty of policy application probably within twelve months, but before Labour is ready for it, not least in gentrified Battersea.