I am very lucky.  I represent in Westminster the place where I was born and grew up. My parents and grandparents are my constituents.  When I stood for election, my school mate, Jenny, who sat next to me in A level Politics many years ago, was my agent.  On the campaign trail, there was barely a street that did not contain a friend, a parent’s friend, or a friend’s parent.

With this lucky position, though, comes responsibility.  When you know your electorate this well, you don’t get away with bog-standard Labour pledges created in some far-away London meeting room.  The only focus group that mattered to me – my friends and relatives – was one that would have no hesitation in telling me if I got it wrong.  During the election, I knew that my offer to the voters of Wirral had to be right.

I grew up in Merseyside during the 1980s and 90s, when the employment picture was pretty grim.  As a young person, I chose to go away to university in London, believing that this would offer better chances for jobs, and many I knew did similarly.  But Labour in Government re-addressed the regional balance, and the 2008 recession saw only half the level of unemployment in Merseyside than in 1992 for us – a massive success, bearing in mind the size of the crash.

The chair of Wirral South CLP, Frank McCoy (who very sadly died in August) and I talked about this at length.  Though retired, he had been the trade union convenor at Vauxhall Motors, and explained how the union had campaigned through the years for training, skills and investment.  In doing so, they had secured new manufacturing opportunities – and work – for several generations of my constituents.  Meanwhile, I was talking on the doorstep to working families, who read about falling prospects and were worried about the life chances of the next generation.

Through the fog of the 2010 general election, Frank’s foresightedness made me think about what I could add.  How could I build on this vision, where modern manufacturing, and other trades, offered Merseyside’s young people a chance to build a career? How could we involve not just those who needed an opportunity, but their families – from grandparents to brothers and sisters – in standing up for young people?

The answer was to make apprenticeships our top priority.  Labour had made great strides: in 1997 there were just 90 apprentices in Wirral, but in 2008 this was up to 1300.  Still not enough for all those who applied, but a platform on which to build.  The Labour-led council had their own programme, assisting small and medium size businesses with the cost and recruitment of apprentices.  So we had a great Wirral Labour success story too.  I quickly realised that we needed to go much further for our young people, and that this would take a community campaign.

We wrote to thousands of people and asked if they agreed.  If they did, we asked them to send back a freepost postcard, signing up to the campaign and giving their reasons.  We received some heartfelt feedback: a lady describing an apprenticeship as a ‘golden ticket’ for a person’s future, and a gentleman who said that young people having better skills benefited us all – wealthy or not.  With the permission of those who joined the campaign, we used these quotes in our leaflets, showing that the community really could come together to back our young people.

Gordon Brown visited Vauxhall Motors as part of his General Election tour, and made sure to meet their apprentices. His message of government intervention to back our future economy was well received.  We invited regional economy minister, Rosie Winterton, to meet some apprentices at the local training centre.  She followed up by leading a discussion in the local community centre with those who had signed up to the campaign on what Government and businesses could do to bring down barriers to companies taking on apprentices.

We built on the press coverage for these events by highlighting the campaign in my election address, and made sure all campaign volunteers knew how to sign up supporters on the doorstep. Our local Labour team was small, but strong, and having a very clear local pledge helped motivate volunteers and voters. It was, and is, a constant reminder of what politics is actually for.

Labour might not have secured enough seats for a majority in the end, but it was campaigns like ours in Wirral South that denied Cameron a majority.  We listened carefully to people, to their fears for our future, and involved the community in campaigning for the right solution.  This work is still ongoing, and I hope I am able to be a better champion for my home town –  and for apprenticeships – now that I am their Member of Parliament.

by Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South