Letter: Labour Can’t Win in Guildford

Published on: 16 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 17 Dec, 2019

From Jonathan Neil-Smith

In response to: General Election Result Shows Lib Dems Will Never Win Here

The Guildford result will have been very disappointing to many, but I would draw a different conclusion from Matthew Smith (whose dedication to the Labour cause is rather admirable in the face of their worst result since 1935).

Guildford has never had a Labour MP; Labour candidates have not won as many as 12,000 votes here [since 1970].

It needed more than tactical voting by Labour supporters to beat the Conservatives. Remain-leaning Conservatives would have needed to switch.

Anne Milton, an opponent of “No deal”, will have creamed off some of those votes. But fear of a Corbyn premiership will have deterred others from voting Lib Dem.

Their fears will have been reinforced by the Labour-supported RMT strike on SWR which will have reawakened memories of Seventies-style union militancy. This will have been a factor not just here but in Esher, Wimbledon and Winchester where the Lib Dems also narrowly failed to unseat the Conservatives.

Responses to Letter: Labour Can’t Win in Guildford

Richard Mithen Reply

December 17, 2019 at 9:32 am

Labour’s maximum number of votes in a general election is 21,789 in 1945.

Editor’s comment. Apologies. I did not check back far enough. I had amended Jonathan Neil-Smith’s letter accordingly.
Colin Cross Reply

December 18, 2019 at 1:32 pm

It is undoubtedly true to say that the primary reason that there was not a bigger swing to the Lib Dems in the Remainer Majority seats across the country, but particularly Surrey, was an overwhelming fear of letting Mr Corbyn into No10 via the back door.

That said, they are now in second place across virtually the whole of Surrey and if Brexit stops being such a divisive issue (one way or the other) it may be a very different story in five year’s time.

I believe that our new prime minister is out on a limb politically and heading for a hard or even no deal Brexit which will undermine his credibility in the long term and may even render him unelectable. We are already today seeing him renege on key promises made a few short weeks ago.

The one thing both the Lib Dems and Labour have to absolutely get right this time is the selection of their new leaders. With one mistake each under their respective belts, it can be put down to carelessness but another wrong choice will be near-fatal for either.

Colin Cross was writing in his personal capacity, not as a borough councillor.
John Perkins Reply

December 19, 2019 at 11:58 am

I doubt the ability of the Labour party to choose an electable new leader. The superannuated hippy students have a tight grip on it and their like have shown in the past that nothing short of force will make them relinquish it.

Easier, perhaps, would be for normal members to break away and form a new party. New rules could exclude extremists from joining. Traditional Labour supporters would return to a more moderate party and Momentum would be left in control of a rump with appeal only to wealthy pseudo-Marxists.

A strong and credible opposition is an absolute necessity for our palsied electoral system to function.