Wakefield's Cllr Mike Walker explains how he turned wards run by Labour for 26 years into Tory wards with four figure majorities

This is the text of the talk that Cllr Mike Walker of Wakefield West ward gave at the 2008 Spring Forum in Gateshead.  Last week he held his seat with a majority of 1,741.

This ward has 52% social housing, a very high deprivation index and is home to four Labour councillors. Labour controlled the ward with large majorities for 26 years.

We now fully control the ward and have done so for the last three elections - all with increasing four figure majorities. This will be repeated in six weeks' time.

We do not follow the normal approach of hordes of activists and floods of leaflets at election times. We are of the opinion that victories produced by such methods tend to be unsustainable and are significantly susceptible to national mood.

Large amounts of money and manpower are unnecessary. Our way of working is an ongoing and inclusive engagement with the electorate.

Our team is small – three full-time cllrs ensuring an almost daily presence on the streets backed up by 3-4 helpers to deliver the leaflet at election times. No election has cost more than £195.

To open up a sustainable presence in the Labour heartlands requires candidates who effectively work full time on the streets. These can be found amongst the retired. Ex police and prison officers make first class candidates. Our view is to source candidates amongst issues rather than within the Party organisation.

Our leaflets are very different. Their purpose is to be read. This is achieved by brevity, big print and unexpected headlines. The content is written for us on the streets.

Seamless integration with all the recognised and unrecognised community and voluntary groups is essential. The ethos of our approach is to serve everyone, always under promise, always over deliver and be totally honest. We have never held a surgery, never had our photographs on a leaflet and do not court the press. However, each of us rarely gets less than four calls/day for help.

We recognise that most people are motivated by issues rather than by politics. Perhaps most importantly, we understand that people who are most naturally at home with our beliefs, once we can break down the prejudices and gain their confidence, are the less well off. They are the ones who every day suffer the fall out from our broken society and the nonsense of Labour. Earn their trust and they will flock to us – and stay.

In Constituency terms our ward has the most members, raises the most money and has an inclusion policy whereby no event charges more than £5.

I leave these thoughts with you as a way of winning.

Comments

[Craig Barrett]

His approach clearly works...

[rightwingery]

Mike Walker never ventures into any other ward. Wakefield Conservatives secured arguably the best set of results for these local council elections. Nothing outside Walker's little fiefdom can be attributed to this man. It was the hard work of Alex Story, Tony Homewood, Antony Calvert and the candidates that won these seats, not Walker.

Singling out Mike for praise when he refused to help any other candidate just so he could get his whopping great majority is not fair.

[Dan]

I am sorry rightwingery, but no. The man been part of a team which has taken a Labour strong hold and turned it blue with £195 an election and some damn hard work.

He is not claiming to have won the entire thing himself, "three full-time cllrs ensuring an almost daily presence on the streets backed up by 3-4 helpers", he is telling us how he did it for OUR benefit.

If other seats could affect the same long term shift from Labour to Conservative then his strategies are worth looking at quite seriously.

[rightwingery]

I was a first time helper at these elections for the tories. I have to say I was so impressed with the campaigning set up there. The hard work that went into winning all those seats was down to the principle of mutual aid.

Cllr Walker did not step foot out of his ward. If he had spent a week in Wakefield North then we would have won that seat and taken the council into NOC.

What is the point in racking up a huge majority, however impressive that is, when we lose the next door ward by 40 votes?

[Jack Ketch]

I know Mike Walker very well. His system works ....No doubt.

The thing is that what Mike fails to point out is that his majority of 1741 last week does absolutely nothing to get the labour party out of Wakefield. It just means that Mike Walker has the biggest majority in Wakefield and he can remind everyone at every opportunity.

Mike John and Bill are all retired with handsome pensions and have the time to work the ward in the way they do. This is simply not possible for many councillors who are holding down full-time jobs as well.

The fact that Wakefield now has a labour majority of just 1(One) is nothing to do with Mike Walker. His input to realising that position was NIL....well almost nil anyway. Had he bothered to cross Dewsbury Rd and use his canvassing talents in North Ward, we may well have taken the 19 votes we needed to take from labour to get us into NOC.

Still......Mike has the biggest majority in Wakefield and that is all that matters

[johnC]

I think all you Wakefield Tories should join ranks and concentrate on the real enemy - the Labour council. I lived in Horbury a few years ago and was delighted to see the result there.

[Jack Ketch]

Tell that to Mike Walker.

I don't need telling. I have worked in practically every ward in the district....including his

[5legs]

Walker does what he does and it clearly works. That's great!

Alex Story's team did a brilliant job in Wakefield. The Tories now have 11 councillors in the seat (and 45% share of the vote), compared to 5 Labour and 2 Liberals.

We guys on the ground can now look forward optimistically to the general election campaign. A win for Story here after over sixty years of Labour representation would be quite a moment.

[John W]

Jesus H Christ! The man was telling how to win a ward in a local election and all we can do is bloody critisise what he did and did not do in Wakefield as a town. This is not a strategic guide to wrestling councils from the mitts of Labour it is about how to win and win well on the streets all over this country. Mike does not seem to be claiming to be the man I so rudely blasphemed at the beginning of this post, but sharing how he won such a big majority. Perhaps he needs to be persuaded to share the love a little - maybe if he were asked more politely he would be readier to do this. But even in his obsessive focus on one ward there is a lesson to be learnt - support for our party has to be rebuilt from the very grass roots, door to door, and the way to do this is actually to mix with, care for and serve the local people who come election time will reward the politicians who do this. What Mike did isn't just good for winning it's good for democracy and good for our society.

[David Giles]

Well done Mike Walker and well done all Tories in Wakefield.There is no substitute for hard, consistent ward by ward work at grass roots level.I know from my own experience that if you have 3 hard working candidates and councillors and a team of 6-10 willing helpers, then you can win a ward and hold it -particularly if Labour or the Lib Dems cannot or do not make the same effort.

It would obviously be good if Mike Walker and his colleagues could find some time to assist in winning other wards in Wakefield but I think the other wards should follow his advice and example and find the candidates who have the time and the motivation to put in the hard work.

[Ant Calvert]

Good grief, I get back from work and it seems the whole Conservative Party is talking about Wakefield!

And so they should! Because of the hard work and dedication of people like Cllr Walker we have seen numbers swell on the council from 5 to 23 in 5 years or so.

As I was, as it were, mentioned in dispatches, I thought I would congratulate everyone in the Wakefield team for a job well done. I came up to Wakefield for a week to help out, so I don't deserve the sort of plaudits others should receive, but if ever there was an advert for the merits of hard work Wakefield Conservatives should feature.

The entire team, from Mike and his crew getting such a huge win in Wakefield West (and making Alex Story's election as Wakefield's first MP since the war more likely) to the 30 or so activists who worked their socks off getting other candidates elected during the months leading up to the election.

I have always believed that the Conservatives work best when we have a coalition of retired grafters, like Mike and his team, who can spend a lot of time during the day doing ward work full time, and the professionals, such as Cllr Simon Wilson, who rely on helpers to put leaflets out and knock on doors during election time but can contribute enormous energy to the professional performance of the group.

Wakefield still may go NOC in the coming weeks or months too. That really would give DC another nail to hammer into Brown's already rusty coffin!

Watch this space!!

[Ayestotheright]

The hard core of activists etc referred to above includes numbers of retired and, (dare I say) middle aged to somewhat elderly long standing members of the Party, who have been almost shamefully derided and ignored during DC's leadership so far. These represent the central core of Conservative voters and it bodes ill for DC if he does not become all inclusive with them in the run up to the next GE. The modern young activists are very welcome and add life and vigour to the Party. We older ones stuck by our principles through the dark days of Wilson, Callaghan, Major et al. Worn out and shabby by today's standards we may be, but we still retain our core beliefs.

[Henry Mayhew - 'kipper]

Brilliant (S)tory.

Right, back to work..

[Victor, NW Kent]

Applause for Mike Walker. Boos for his detractors.

He's telling you how to do it but it demands hard work, not negative reaction.

[Peter, Wolverhampton]

Great to read Mike Walker's piece. As a Yorkshireman living in the City of Wolverhampton I was part of the team that won 8 seats from Labour. There is now a Conservative cabinet in Wolverhampton.
Like Mike Walker I just worked in my ward from when I was selected until polling day. I visited parts of the ward that had not seen or talked to a candidate (from any political party) for a long time. With help from people in other parts of the city we turned what had been a 'stronghold' for Labour into a Conservative seat.