As a Parliamentary Candidate standing for Labour at the last General Election, it became clear that many of our supporters felt that the previous Labour Government weren’t listening to us any more but also seemed  to be on the wrong side of the political fence. One such group was the Gurkhas who had served in the British Army prior to 1997 not having the right to settle in this country.

I personally felt that on this issue the Labour Government was on the wrong side of the argument. Also, a lot of the Nepalese I met in Aldershot were Labour supporters and couldn’t understand why the Labour Government were not allowing Gurkhas who had  fought for this country prior to retiring in 1997 to settle in the UK or to have equal pensions.

As a result, I made the decision to campaign for this community and to lobby the then Labour Government to reverse its policy.

I started a petition requesting that all Gurkhas received equal pensions to all those who served in the British Army. My strategy in order  to gain as many as signatories as possible was to target a part of the constituency that had not been seen as Labour-friendly: the armed services family living quarters in Wellington ward. With the help of Labour activists like Alex Crawford (who is now a Rushmoor Labour councillor for Heron Wood ward) and former Gurkhas we collected over 2,000 signatures by going around the married quarters and received universal support for the petition. I organised a street stall in Aldershot Town Centre with the local Gurkha community on the Saturday before the Labour Party Conference in 2008. I was amazed by the sight of residents literally queuing to sign when I had a street stall in the Town Centre.  A week later, I presented the 2,000 signatories to the then Minister for Veterans, Derek Twigg.

Then, at the beginning of 2009, I co-ordinated with the then head of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Gurkhas, Martin Salter MP (former Labour Member for Reading West), a signed letter from 29 Labour Parliamentary Candidates that was sent to the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The letter asked for a change in the immigration policy for the Gurkhas following the High Court decision in September 2008 which requested a review of current policy.

I was very fortunate to be supported by a hard-working Labour Group of 6 councillors led by Cllr Keith Dibble. This proved invaluable to me as a PPC where together with the Labour councillors we were able to campaign effectively on local issues concerning the regeneration of Aldershot Town Centre and turning former MoD property into more social housing. It also gave me a campaigning base to build on where I didn’t need to start from scratch.

I think, with the Peter Hain review, the Labour Party has a great opportunity to embed certain changes needed in the way we campaign.

Firstly, the Party needs to support our local councillors who provide the basic campaigning infrastructure that will lead to the Party’s recovery. Without any local government base, it will be impossible to win back the constituencies we lost in May 2010 as well as establishing a base of support to win in constituencies where we have traditionally been in third place.

Secondly, the Party needs to clearly define the role of individual PPCs who are fighting in unwinnable seats to be given clear instructions on what is expected of them in terms of leading campaigns in the constituencies where they are standing as well as supporting neighbouring marginal constituencies. I feel appropriate PPC contracts for all candidates in both winnable and unwinnable seats would be the answer.

Finally, I feel community organising needs to be fully integrated within the Labour Party and be a precondition for the selection of Labour Local Government and Parliamentary Candidates. CLPs need to receive more training from the centre where models of good practice which achieve a high turnout of activists are replicated and effective campaigns are carried out on a shoestring which both myself and the local Labour councillors were able to do in Aldershot.

by Jonathan Slater, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Aldershot in 2010