So tactical voting rears it head again in this election in Wells and I have been struggling to get my head around the fact that so many people say they support labour or Corbyn or both or just love the policies or love our local Candidate Kama McKenzie but still won’t vote for out local Labour Candidate. The main fear seems to be that it would “split the vote” and therefore let James Heappey back in. I think this is a mistaken assumption and given that so many people say this to me I’m starting to think there is a bit of a smoke and mirrors job going on here.
Firstly, a poll taken in Bath in 2017 showed that when people voted tactically the Liberal Democrats did better, but when people voted with their true intentions – e.g.: all parties had an equal chance of winning – Labour would have won the Seat by a 6% majority. Equally, a recent quick poll on Somerset Politics showed that when asked for who they would vote for if all parties had an equal chance of winning the labour vote would clearly wins with a staggering 4 times as many votes as the Lib Dems.
Admittedly, these polls are indicative rather than precise but what they indicate is that the Lib Dem vote is held up by a huge number of people who actually want a Labour Government and would prefer a Local Labour MP.
The problem is that people keep telling them that labour can’t win, won’t win and will let a tory in. If we reverse that story and convince every tactical voter to vote with their heart and minds, then labour would clearly be in a better position to tackle ousting the current Tory. And that fight – to reverse the traditions of the last 20 years must start somewhere and now is the time. There is a growing number of first time voters registering to vote who back LABOUR, there is a excellent set of policies from the national party and there is a fantastic local Candidate in Kama McKenzie who will make a huge difference to Wells and Burnham and Glastonbury and Shepton should she win.
Another point – Tactical voting has been tried in this constituency before – 2017 – it didn’t work, 2015 – it didn’t work and in 2010 it worked but we still got a tory government which lead to a Tory majority government and Brexit and the mess we find ourselves in now.
Our candidate isn’t going anywhere, this is a long-term plan and if we don’t win this time, we will work to win next time. But we must start to stand up for what we believe in otherwise the best we can hope for is a yet another Tory/Lib Dem austerity supporting nightmare for the next 5 years. If you will stand up, be counted and add your voice to labours you will find that you are not alone. The result above indicate that you might be in the majority!