No such thing as a safe seat

 Dunfermline, Crewe, Glasgow East – the phenomenon of safe Labour seats being upended is one that deserves a little more attention. Let’s consider that incredible turnout in Glasgow East – 42% in a seat where 48% turned up for the general. For the first time in decades, a political party (the SNP) campaigned hard there. People knocked on doors. The nationalists raised, and deployed, an army of people and asked Glasgow East voters what they thought, they engaged with them. And it worked. 

Most popular

Matthew Lynn

The minimum wage is too high

Remember the BNP’s electoral successes – such as they are – come from exploiting the forgotten people in Labour’s modern-day rotten boroughs. They were the first to spot the trend now appearing: that a “safe” seat is only safe if no one bothers to campaign there. Labour has allowed its safe seats to become terra incognita: it has no canvass returns, presence on the ground or (crucially) a discernable mission.