Labour confounds expectations in March West

North East Cambs Labour this evening defied gloomy expectations in a by-election in March West by smashing the Lib Dems and coming a respectable second. The Tory won 830 votes, Martin Field, the Labour candidate, won 460 votes, and the Lib Dem got a measly 250 votes.

Bearing in mind that in the County Elections earlier this year Labour received 177 votes in the same ward/division, and the Tory got 1175, this is a good result. The Lib Dem vote also went down 27 votes from 277. I'm no psephologist, but this is a big swing to Labour.

Previously, on Vote2007.co.uk all of the so-called 'experts' predicted that Labour would get less than 10% of the vote. We actually got 31%, almost double the Lib Dem percentage.

Why did Labour perform so unexpectedly well? Firstly, we fought a hugely energetic and enterprising campaign. Peter Roberts, Labour PPC for North East Cambs, and Chris Jones organised a focused and professional effort, which saw us knocking on 1500+ doors in a month, putting out 3 leaflets and a day of poll, and conducting a decent knocking-up operation on the day. All credit to them for throwing their energy into such a seemingly hopeless cause.

Perhaps the most important factor was the sheer quality of the candidate. Martin Field is a long-serving Geography teacher at the local Neale-Wade community college. He helped set up Young People March, a scheme designed to give youngsters in March something to occupy themselves. He has chaired Fenland Victim Support. He is Chair of Governors at a local primary school. The number of schemes and projects he has selflessly dedicated himself to for the good of the community is tremendous. He is the sort of bloke without whom local communities and civil society would wither on the vine. He's also a really nice man personally, feeding and watering us activists without complaint. Canvassing, it became a running joke that virtually everyone we talked to had either been taught by him, or had children who had done; the reaction to him in this capacity was overwhelmingly positive;he must be one hell of a teacher. If he had been an independent, he would have stormed home to victory.

Another noticeable factor was the quality of the literature we put out. I say without a shadow of a doubt that the leaflets put together by the Roberts/Jones duo were superior to anything the national party managed to put out in the whole Norwich North by-election - glossy, full colour, well-designed, with sharp, to the point copy. I'm not sure whether this says more about Peter and Chris - the Batman and Robin of Cambridgeshire politics - or the national party.

Anyway, the by-election was great fun and a real blow for the Lib Dems. Without the Lib Dems, Labour would have stood a chance of actually beating the Tory. It shows what a spent force the Libs are in North East Cambs, and gives impetus to the argument that only a Labour vote can beat the Tory in Fenland.