Dragon Interview: Richard Wilson, Former Labour Candidate for Guildford

Published on: 13 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 18 Oct, 2016

Richard Wilson was Labour’s Parliamentary candidate at the last general election in May 2015. In a constituency where the Labour candidate normally comes a poor third he managed to increase the Labour vote from 2,800 (5% vote share) t0 over 6,500 (12%).

But now he has decided to leave the Labour party after decades of support. He tells Martin Giles why…

Richard Wilson

Why did you decide to leave the Labour Party?

It was a huge wrench to leave the Labour Party after being a member for over 20 years. I have been a committed Labour person since even before I could vote. I leafleted for Labour and organised the mock election at my school during the 1987 general election. Some of the finest people I have ever met have been in Labour, including in the local Guildford party.

Unfortunately, the Labour Party has now been seized by the hard left and there is no viable prospect of moderates retaking it. Everyone can see the incompetence, dishonesty and abusiveness of the hard left but all of this is the product of their extremism, and extremism is never coherent.

When they talk about leaving NATO, printing infinite money to fund the deficit, supporting terrorist groups and lynching opposing MPs they do not do so in my name. I have always been a moderate but the party is now extremist, so I had to leave.

What will you do politically now? Which party will you support?

Leaving the Labour Party feels like a divorce. As painful as a divorce is, it is sometimes the best option in an impossible relationship. I am not planning to join another party on the rebound.

I expect the Labour Party will split in two: moderates and extremists. I will then join “Moderate Labour”. Until this happens, put me down as “undecided”. I won’t vote Tory and I won’t vote for a Trot. After that, it will be a process of elimination. I will be looking for a pro-EU candidate who believes in state involvement in the economy to tackle inequality and give working people a fair deal.

Pictured from left: Anne Milton, John Pletts, David from George Abbot School who chaired the hustings, Richard Wilson, Kelly-Arie Blundell and xxxx

Richard (red tie) at a hustings meeting in the 2015 general election campaign.

Were you expecting to be a parliamentary candidate for Guildford again?

It was a great honour to be a parliamentary candidate and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am very grateful to everyone who voted for me and to everyone else who took the time to share their opinions during the 18 months I was a candidate. I am very proud that we increased the Labour vote by 132%, one of the best percentage increases for Labour in the whole country, on a bad night for Labour, nationally.

I am not expecting to be a parliamentary candidate again but I will never forget what the voters of Guildford told me on the doorsteps. Labour never got round to studying why we lost the general election but one day I hope to use what I have learned to help a party which is interested in winning elections and changing the country for the better.

Many Scots, and some from other regions of England, seem to regard the UK as a hegemony dominated by London and South East. Is that your view? Are the Tory party, London, the South East and the political class all one thing?

The economic power of the South East is undeniable. I moved from the North West of England, and before that from Scotland, to settle here due to my job, as did my siblings and many friends. Politically, the Tories are very strong in the South East outside London.

However, London itself has just elected a moderate Labour mayor and there are other forces at work in the South East too. English nationalism is rearing its ugly head. The Tories would be wise not to try to ride this tiger. Remember what happened to Labour’s dominance in Scotland.

You must have got to know Guildford and its people quite well during you political activity here. What were your observations of the town as a political, social and civic entity?

The best thing about being a parliamentary candidate is getting to meet the amazing inspiring people who make our society work. I met midwives, teachers, police officers, shop-workers, community workers, employers, artists, engineers, clergymen, students and volunteers.

Looking at the numbers, Guildford appears to be a safe Conservative seat but I don’t think they should take that for granted. Many people looked at Labour in 2015 and decided they didn’t trust us with their prosperity.

At the time I could see that we were edging towards the public but there was still much to do. People here are not “little Englanders”. I don’t think Guildford will necessarily always be Tory but Corbyn’s Labour has made the task of the next Labour candidate, assuming there is one, much more difficult.

If you were elected as a Mayor of Guildford tomorrow what would be the priorities on your “to do” list? Would you be given the power, under the current system for elected mayors of local authorities, to make real changes?

The prime power of any elected mayor would be to use their mandate to influence government. I am very worried about the effects of Brexit on Guildford so a mayor should lobby for local priorities to be taken into account in the post-Brexit settlement. Two areas are of particular concern.

Firstly, services for older people will be under even more pressure. Demand will increase with an ageing population and fewer people able to retire abroad due to movement controls and a permanently lower pound. At the same time, it will become much harder to recruit health and social care staff. The mayor should demand a share of the promised extra “£350m” per week for the NHS in Guildford.

Secondly, I worry about the knowledge economy in Guildford. International collaboration and funding is vital to maintaining high tech industry and research here. The mayor should be lobbying the government to replace lost funding from the EU and foreign companies after Brexit.

Also, special arrangements should be made to continue to allow our students and academics to travel and study in the EU, and vice versa. We must not become cut off from future technological advances as the world moves on without us.

Guildford didn’t vote for Brexit but will have to live with its consequences. As mayor, I would be camped out on the doorstep of Number 10 Downing Street to fight for the least damaging settlement possible for Guildford.

What will you do with the time you used to use for political activity?

I had been used to devoting nearly all my free time to the Labour Party so it is nice to be able to spend more of it with my friends and family, pottering in the garden and tinkering with my classic car.

Responses to Dragon Interview: Richard Wilson, Former Labour Candidate for Guildford

J Davey Reply

October 17, 2016 at 1:36 pm

To stop selling council houses and building new ones is not a hard left policy nor is stopping the gradual privatisation of the health service, both policies of the far right of Blairites. A return to post war Labour values is needed.
- David Pillinger Reply
  
  October 17, 2016 at 8:27 pm
  
  Ahem, Mr Davey…the NHS is not being privatised. The hard left maintain that buying private services is privatisation whereas in fact it is to be more efficient and provide a superior service, while very much keeping the organisation fully under public control.
  
  For example, the NHS buys equipment such as scanners from Siemens, agency nurses and doctors from private providers, rubber gloves from Marigold(?) and, in Guildford specifically, the services of a fantastic private company that carries out PET and MRI scans on-site.
  
  This is working with the greater efficiencies of the private sector, not privatisation, which is something completely different. If the hard left had it their way, the NHS would be manufacturing everything it currently buys in from the private sector: scanners, rubber gloves, beds, meals, trolleys… then it would be a shambles.
  - Mary Bedforth Reply
    
    October 19, 2016 at 4:42 pm
    
    Is David Pillinger joking?
    
    I came across this today:
    
    “The Tories just tried to sneak out the biggest ever privatisation of the NHS
    
    http://www.thecanary.co/2016/10/18/tories-just-tried-sneak-biggest-ever-privatisation-nhs/
    
    The Conservative government has quietly announced one of the biggest sell-offs in the entire history of the NHS. On Friday 14 October, the government’s website released details of nine NHS contracts that are up for sale. And they are worth a staggering £7.9bn; 7.3% of the total NHS budget.
    
    Staggering amounts of money.
    
    The contracts, in the North West, South West, London, Yorkshire and Humber, two in the South East, and three in the East Midlands with no current value, are for what’s known as “prescribed specialised services”. While the government has not given specifics as to what services are up for sale, they fall into these categories:
    
    Cancer.
    Mental Health.
    Trauma (A&E).
    Women and children.
    Blood and infection.
    Pharmacy.
    
    The values of the two-year contracts are as follows:
    
    South West: £1,250,567,024.
    North West: £1,304,170,076.
    South East: £779,026,586 and £1,779,914,071.
    London: £2,792,976,480.
    Yorkshire and Humber: £769,411 (continues at link).
    
    Of course the NHS is being privatised. It will not exist in its present form in 10 years or so. Go into A&E with your credit card.
    
    The mantra is Demoralise-Destabilize-Dismantle
David Pillinger Reply

October 17, 2016 at 5:30 pm

A brave and commendable decision by Mr Wilson.
Sally Parrott Reply

October 18, 2016 at 1:03 pm

Oh dear. Has Mr Wilson considered that many of the Labour members and supporters who campaigned enthusiastically for him in Guildford (and congratulations to him on increasing the Labour vote) may be among the 60% who voted for Corbyn and McDonnell’s Labour party? Have 313, 000 of us all been duped?

I’ve seen very little incompetence, dishonesty or abusiveness among people inspired by Corbyn, in fact, whether or not people agree with Corbyn’s politics, most would acknowledge that he’s one of the most polite, honest and decent people in politics.

It really isn’t accurate to describe us as hard-left. Harold Wilson, and even Macmillan (who deplored privatisation as ‘selling off the family silver’) are not far to the right of Corbyn.

Leaving NATO is not party policy, and if printing money to bail out the banks worked, why not try it for infrastructure projects to kick-start British industries (importing will soon be very expensive due to Brexit)?

If more people listened to Corbyn’s speeches – available on the internet – and not the picture of him painted by the press (largely owned by a handful of offshore millionaires), even more might wish for the more equal, kinder, more prosperous country Corbyn and McDonnell are working towards.
Keith Chesterton Reply

October 19, 2016 at 1:48 pm

The Labour Party, like all major parties, has a wide range of opinions within it, and there is plenty of room for people with Richard Wilson’s views to argue for them with other members and perhaps persuade them.

I have engaged in robust (and good tempered) debate with other members at Guildford Labour Party meetings and Richard could have done the same, rather than giving up. And in all these arguments, I’ve heard no-one argue for the policies Richard says are Labour’s.

What I have heard is a great desire to build a lot more houses, to build up our infrastructure, to stop the drift (at present a rush) to privatise the NHS and everything else that moves and to make sure that the large number of companies and individuals who dodge paying their taxes with barely legal, financial jiggery-pokery, pay their dues, like the rest of us do. Then we’ll have a lot of the money to do what we need to do.

Richard was a hard-working candidate, I had pleasure working with, but he’s gone badly astray here.
R N Johnstone Reply

May 9, 2017 at 3:59 pm

My father was an airline pilot and I used to help him posting Labour party leaflets through letter boxes in Horsham.

That was in the early 70s and it’s curious that after so much beneficial change for the Labour Party Jeremy Cornyn has dragged them back to the days of keeping the red flag flying.

The future looks grim.