Greener and greener in Brighton

At the beginning of the month Nancy Platts, Labour’s candidate in Brighton Pavilion in last year’s election, wrote on this site about how the Greens, or more specifically Caroline Lucas, had won the seat. Much of what she wrote rang true of what happened in Brighton last month when the Greens took control of Brighton and Hove City Council and formed the first Green administration anywhere in the country.

That the Greens first taste of power should come on the south coast should surprise no-one, they have been building their support base and vote here for the last 15 years, since they won their first seat back in 1996 – although they had been polling well in certain areas of Brighton since the late 80s and the Green bounce at the 1989 Euro elections. Their winning of their first and only Parliamentary seat last year clearly gave them a spring board for further gains in this year’s Council elections (Brighton and Hove is a unitary authority holding elections every four years, so it was an all or nothing moment).

All the political parties are still picking over what happened in Brighton and (more interestingly) Hove to create yet another political first. But a few things are already clear and there are lessons for all the parties, especially Labour. The key four factors were as follows.

Firstly the Greens had ‘the big mo’ – momentum. They’ve been on a roll since their breakthrough election in 2007 when they doubled their council seats, and on a high since they won the Parliamentary seat; they’ve also been doing well in by-elections since 2007. They’ve been helped by increased focus on the city by the party and support from Green activists outside the city who saw the opportunity and were hungry for a win. All this helped them achieve the one thing that holds back smaller parties from breaking through – credibility; people believed the Greens could win and subsequently were more willing to vote for them. To their credit they’ve used their victories well, Dr Lucas is everywhere and you’d be hard pushed to know that she wasn’t the MP for the entire city.

Second, the collapse of the Liberal Democrats has been a significant factor in the growth of the Greens in Brighton. One of the first things to happen in wards which have gone Green has been the collapse of the Lib Dem vote. This time round they were pretty much obliterated as an electoral force in Brighton. Their vote was down to around 5% across the city (and only in 2 wards did they poll in double figures) losing their last 2 remaining councillors as a result. In their key target ward the Greens jumped from third to snatch a seat from the Tories.

Lib Dem voters angry with the coalition and feeling they’d wasted their votes in 2010 (and canvassing those recorded as Lib Dems in 2010 showed this was a big group) were not switching to Labour. Lib Dem voters would appear to have gone to the Greens, as in Scotland where left-leaning Lib Dems had a viable alternative in the SNP; they chose to go the alternative rather than us. This should be of big concern for Labour and should send a wake-up call to all local parties facing the Lib Dems where the Greens are already active. A green win of a Tory council seat in rural Essex on an 18% swing several weeks ago should also highlight it doesn’t need large scale activity for this to become a reality.

Third was the willingness of previously Tory voters to vote Green. In my ward the Tory vote fell by 6%, neither I nor my Green opponent picked this up on the doorstep or on polling day, but as the votes were verified it became clear that there were a sizeable number of split votes – 1 Green 1 Tory. As the count went on the Greens started making serious inroads into Tory territory for the first time, clearly winning an MP had given them a credibility that allowed softer Conservative voters to swap to them. Combined with a changing population this has allowed the Greens to establish themselves in Hove (6 seats this time compared to none in 2007).

Fourth Labour failed to do what it needed to do. We have to admit we ran a disappointing campaign which led to a disappointing result; we failed to win any seats from the Greens, slipping further behind in target wards and were all but wiped out in Brighton Pavilion constituency, where we managed to hold just one seat. We failed to get to grips with the challenge that the Green Party presented to us; telling voters Greens can’t win here, when it was clear that they could and were, was a futile exercise. All our materials were targeted towards attacking the Tory-led Government and the Tory council; this helped us win back 4 seats from the Tories we had lost in 2007 but achieved little for us in vast swathes of the city where the fight was entirely different.

We also failed to understand the needs of the electorate and the changing demography of the city. It is obvious and we failed to spot it (although the other parties are guilty of this too) that the city has changed and the population has changed, new residents don’t view Hove as the genteel neighbour for Tory pensioners next door or as a separate place from Brighton. ‘Hove Actually’ may still be a well-known and well-used joke description for those of us living on that side of the city but Brighton and Hove is now one city and you are as likely to be young, gay or left-leaning in Hove as you are in Brighton.

We needed to understand the city better, with a population half of which is under 40; we should have ensured some younger candidates in winnable seats. With a city internationally famous for its gay population, standing a large number of LGBT candidates was great and vital; that none of them was in a safer seat was lamentable. With two universities in the city but no students as candidates and a poor record in engaging with the students, we shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t get their vote. Also a key issue on the doorstep for years has been schools places, but we have only one councillor with school age children, that’s a problem and that should have been identified.

Ultimately thought the key failure came down to the inability to be able to answer the two following questions (and blame lies both nationally and locally for this): Why should I vote Labour in Brighton? Or perhaps more specifically: Why should I vote Labour rather than Green?

The next four years’ gives us opportunities. The Brighton council elections and general election are expected to fall on the same day. Labour will be in the unique position of fighting 3 parties and being the only one in opposition, oppose properly, effectively and with a clear programme of ideas and policies and we are the alternative to all 3. Also for the first time the Greens will have a record to defend not just a programme to promote, and even with the best run administration will have its problems, this will level the playing field against them in way it hasn’t been before.

If we are to win again in Brighton and Hove, we must have an answer to those two questions; we must have candidates that reflect the diversity of the local population; we need a clear message that is easy to sell to people and answers their questions and concerns and we have to win back those voters we lost to the Greens and Lib Dems since 2001 (in Hove the Lib Dem vote rose over that period from 4,000 to 11,000) if we don’t, we won’t win.


James Asser is co-chair of LGBT Labour and was a Labour candidate in Brighton at this year’s council elections.