I visited the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree for a couple of days during the general election campaign to help out, and was very encouraged by what I saw. Like many seats, Wavertree had been Labour since 1997 but faced a new threat in 2010, with the Lib Dems making it their key North West target. Things did not go as they planned, with Labour experiencing a five percent swing in its favour and gaining control of the council.

I had spent the preceding weeks and months watching the adverse local and national media coverage against candidate, and now Member of Parliament, Luciana Berger build and build. Despite being selected by the vast majority of CLP members as the right candidate to keep Wavertree in Labour hands, in full knowledge that she is from London and not Liverpool, elements of the media insisted on repeatedly misusing the phrase ‘parachuted in’.

Thankfully, and after making 1,000-2,000 contacts a week throughout the campaign, Luciana discovered that the voters of Wavertree are more open to the ideas and values of Labour campaigners on their doorsteps than they are to those of the press. A message of hope to the whole Party as we continue to suffer the attacks of a largely hostile national media.

An energised selection process was, it seems, a major factor in Wavertree’s success. A number of the people I met at the very busy HQ had only got involved in the campaign since they were contacted during the selection process a few weeks earlier. Whilst many had been members for a long time, they had never engaged in campaigning and activism before the competing candidates knocked on their doors.

Finding new activists allowed Luciana and her team to delegate responsibilities to those with the right skills – including a regional trade union organiser in the constituency that had never before been asked to apply their professional fundraising skills for the benefit of the Party. Other occasional volunteers, previously employed to deliver a few leaflets, found themselves running whole ward campaigns. Such finds are a great reason for CLPs to keep in real, human touch with all their members, not just the ones that turn up to branch meetings.

Through a combination of conversations on the doorstep (over 16,000 in total), three canvassing sessions, seven days a week for the final six weeks, regular text updates and events directed towards Wavertree’s different communities, the campaign was able to keep growing all the way up to election day.

The next step is to keep these volunteers engaged in community activism. Luciana plans to establish community engagement panels to help keep a check on local crime, antisocial behaviour and litter and to keep working with her student volunteers to campaign against any rises in tuition fees – both key messages of her campaign.

by Ben Garratt, Bethnal Green and Bow CLP, following conversations with Luciana Berger MP and a number of Wavertree CLP activists