One week on from the London elections, and recriminations continue, not just among the embarrassed and overwhelmingly rejected Tories, but also within the Greens, following a post-result candidate switch which one former Assembly Member has described as “gaming the system”.
Unimpressed: Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Scully
Criticism of the Conservative campaign run by Harrow hairdresser Susan Hall has come from former party colleagues at City Hall and also, inevitably, from Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Scully.
It was Scully, when Minister for London, who was snubbed by Conservative High Command when he declared he wanted to be his party’s candidate for London Mayor. Scully has since announced that he will not stand for election as MP.
Following on the results for London Mayor, in which Labour’s Sadiq Khan won an unprecedented third term with 44% of the vote – despite Tory stitch-ups of the voting system and imposing voter ID for the first time – Scully said on BBC television: “Our campaign was negative, it showed no aspiration for what is an aspirational city and the 9million people in it. We’ve got to do better and show that we are serious about London.”
Nick Rogers, the Tories’ one-term Assembly Member for South West from 2021 (he opted not to stand for re-election, which was probably just as well…), said the Tories could be facing “a nationwide extinction-level event” if it does not learn lessons from the London mayoral race.
Writing in the right-wing Spectator magazine, Rogers said the Conservatives had made “a monumental strategic blunder not to shortlist MP Paul Scully” as their candidate. Rogers had been among those who also put themselves forward as Tory candidate for London Mayor, but later withdrew. He has since left the Conservative Party, too.
Rogers’ analysis seems to chime with the view that ULEZ was “the dog that didn’t bite”.
“What emerged was a narrow and negative view of London from a campaign that appeared nervous to say anything that might frighten an ever-shrinking core vote.
“Hence the overuse of tired ‘war on motorists’ language and an outsized focus on ULEZ and pay-per-mile driving which, while important issues, were never going to be enough to secure victory.
Bungled listing: how Inside Croydon flagged up the miscalculation of the Greens’ and LibDems’ list candidates
“Too much was made of the 2023 Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election victory, ascribed to a strong anti-ULEZ campaign.
“The lesson should have been that the Conservatives barely clung on to a previously solid constituency. But groupthink prevailed and I believe this informed the mayoral campaign far more than was healthy.”
Rogers made the point that Hall’s manifesto “was less than half the length of Shaun Bailey’s 2021 offer”. Imagine that: having only half the ideas of someone who had no ideas of his own…
Rogers said that Hall’s manifesto “contained almost nothing for the younger, professional voters the party absolutely needs to win over”.
He wrote: “The kinds of voters the party failed to connect with in this campaign are precisely those it needs to reach across the country in order to prevent a nationwide extinction-level event.”
Garbett gets sudden promotion into London’s premier league
Meanwhile, there was a degree of surprise when, straight after the Bank Holiday pause, the Green Party announced that Sian Berry, their longest-standing Assembly Member and top of their London-wide list candidates, was immediately resigning, making way for the party’s mayoral candidate, Zoe Garbett. Some described the move as “cynical”.
Garbett, a councillor in Hackney, had conducted a decent enough mayoral campaign, if it suffered for a lack of broader media coverage. But she was only listed by the Greens as their candidate No4 on the London-wide ballot, and the Greens – who polled 12% of the London vote – were unlikely to get more than the three Assembly Members that they have had in recent times.
Inside Croydon had flagged this up as a miscalculation by the party in our election reporting over the weekend: “Both the LibDems and the Greens might need to do some serious re-thinking over this.”
Berry, 49, has been an effective and high-profile Assembly Member since 2016, and has three times run to become London Mayor. But with the former Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, standing down as Brighton’s MP at the General Election, Berry has been installed as the candidate on the south coast, perhaps expected to “inherit” the parliamentary seat from her colleague.
So Berry’s time at City Hall this time round may have been compromised or limited if she does get elected to Westminster. But that was also entirely predictable.
Seat trading: Zoe Garbett (middle, red hair) in Croydon’s Surrey Street. She’s now a London Assembly Member
On Tuesday morning, a statement from her party was issued that said that Berry had “stepped aside” for Garbett.
Having won three list seats, who the Greens put forward to take those seats appears to be a matter within their gift (Zack Polanski and Caroline Russell are their two other AMs, who don’t appear to be going anywhere, for now at least).
Berry said of her decision to swerve another four years of £60,000 per year Assembly wages, “Zoe has shown how much of a difference she will make in City Hall, listening to Londoners and bringing their voices into the political debate.
“That’s why she needs to be in this job as soon as possible. She is already brilliant councillor and will be a brilliant Assembly Member for Londoners.”
But the optics of this move did not look great, as Darren Johnson, himself a former Green Party Assembly Member, responded on hearing the news.
“Perfectly legal and within the rules with seat going to next candidate on the list,” Johnson tweeted.
“But it looks like gaming the system and it comes across as so cynical.
“Who on earth in the Green Party thought this was a good idea?”
And Johnson added: “Can’t believe this still needs spelling out to people in my party.
“The best time to step down is before an election, rather than after. This is what myself and Jenny Jones did in 2016…”, with Jones notably taking a seat in the House of Lords, “…allowing Caroline Russell and Sian Berry to be elected as Assembly Members in our place.”
Read more: In Croydon, Labour’s toxic track record makes it ‘no Khan-do’
Read more: Philp bottles it and exits ‘cesspit’ Facebook group in a hurry
Read more: The shifts below the waterline that require action from all sides
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