It felt like we were fighting the election campaign with longbows while the Tories had sten guns
Sometimes in the Labour Party it can feel like it’s all about the money. It’s the request of most emails you get from Labour and the source of many headaches for constituency Labour parties (CLPs).
Candidates in many of the seats we lost – and several of those we managed to win – talk of the difference between our RISO-produced newsletters that volunteers struggled to deliver, and the relentless paid-for calls and direct mails on glossy paper of our opponents.
Whilst we had the highest contact rates for a generation, as one MP told me, it was as though we had longbows and the government had sten guns.
How we pay our way is never an easy subject to talk about, but we have to if we are serious about equipping activists, candidates and those already elected with the tools they need to win in 2020.
For too long, fundraising activities at a local level have had little connection to the gala dinners and high value work done by the national party, leaving little incentive for local parties to act.
In some key seats, members devoted long hours to setting up events and donation schemes for limited returns. Others had access to donations and donors through networks of which some could only dream.
National fundraising efforts often cross over with those of local and regional parties, with new and old members repeatedly complaining about being asked for varying sums by competing audiences.
What’s more, those who give money to Labour can often feel as though we only value their bank balance – not the relationship they wanted to have with campaigning for social justice which made them donate in the first place.
And whilst, thanks to the work of our talented staff and generous members, we have been successful at small value donation strategies as never before, raising £3.7 million in one year, it is worth remembering that the Tories raised £40 million from intimate policy dinners alone.
Reconnecting fundraising with our campaigns could unlock both grassroots giving and activism. The party has already experimented with match funding arrangements; rewarding key seats that met certain activity criteria with additional resources.
But offering contacts or standard printing in response to activity isn’t the only way to motivate members. Matching funds raised by CLPs if they pledge to hit a certain target with more freedom as to what the funds can be spent on would help make that effort more worthwhile for all concerned.
CLPs and speakers that help others – especially target seats – could benefit from national assistance to run tailored events including small dinners, online actions and large rallies on issues of concern with a wider circulation and help with guest speakers.
Such a national match funding scheme would also encourage CLPs to collaborate in organising these events – and compete to secure this support in a way that could be captured in a leaderboard, with the most active CLPs who do the most for others being rewarded accordingly.
We also need to unlock the potential for CLPs and individual activists to fundraise online, with simple tools that can be properly tailored to local events, products and actions. Members will know how easy a Justgiving or Kickstarter site is to use – it’s time we had the facility to do this for our Labour campaigns too.
Furthermore, given many members and CLPs have great fundraising ideas or products, it’s time for a formal Labour Party marketplace ‘etsy’ style site to help encourage such creativity in the name of socialism, as well as Facebook fundraising assistance for CLPs.
None of these ways of working will replace our relationship with other wings of Labour, including the trade unions who have proudly supported us – and nor should they. But this is about fresh thinking that helps revitalise such links from the grassroots up.
This year the Electoral Reform Society released a new report saying 61 per cent of the public believe the current political funding system is corrupt and in urgent need of reform. Given this, some may say we should focus on renewing our party first and leave the knotted questions of fundraising for later. Others will say we should focus on winning the case for state funding, however unlikely this may seem at present.
But getting it right and being willing to be innovative now is not just about avoiding the reputational risk of getting it wrong. Without cash we cannot pay for staff, print leaflets or even fund the websites that will help us win elections as well as rebuild our party.
It’s time we put our money where our mouth is, stopped seeing members as cash machines, and became a fundraising political movement.
Stella Creasy is the Labour and Co-op MP for Walthamstow and is standing for the deputy leadership of the party. Follow her on Twitter
114 Responses to “Comment: Labour needs to reform the way it is funded”
D Evans
Who’s idea of social justice is the best, yours? Whatever, you have to be in power to bring about change and that means being elected!
Nigel thorn
The only way to achieve a level playing field is to campaign successfully for equal state funding-full stop(see Germany) Nigel thorn
Sue Ilsley
Well John Rawls ‘Social Justice’ wouldn’t be a bad place to start thinking about it and yes you do have to be in power to bring it about and obviously every one thought Tony Blair would. However he brought in Tax credits to subsidise low pay, he began the privatisation of the NHS and he did nothing to build the Social Housing Maggie flogged off. Finally he took us into a war without UN agreement and despite the news coverage 3,000,000 people opposing it. So I think people deserve a bit of honesty (unusual I admit)
Alan
Perhaps it is time the Labour Party campaigned on the basis that:
1) Rent Allowance is a direct payment made to Landlords to subsidise excessive rents charged – no wonder the landlords contribute to the Tory Party – a straight payment for their vote. The Labour Party should scrap the Rent allowance, increase benefits actually paid, and let rents find their real value – which is next to nothing as the people who live in this rented accommodation have little or no money of their own thanks to the great system we live under. The present system means many people will never earn enough to rent a property whether working or not. Stop making benefit payments to Landlords it just increases the rent they can charge.
2) The Party should point out that the payment the present Tory Bandits are intending to make to pay off the National Debt is going to be raised by cutting the amount of moneys given in the main to the poorest section of the ‘society’- not by the billionaires ( whoever allowed these people to get away with such greed?) or the tax dodging ‘Public’ companies using tax havens and government collusion to steal legally.
3) Stop paying tax credits to people earning over the minimum wage and increase the minimum wage to a proper living wage inclusive of real rent requirements.
Dom Bruin
You r lobotomised if you believe cameron is charismatic! As for the wealthy being philanthropic, they get tax relief on donations to charities, in the case of the tory balls etc, those millionaires who gave to the tory scum did so to get something out of it! U need to get real or get out of the country. Labour had a lot of great policies, sadly the morons of this country didn’t want to listen, all they heard was the Scots are going to come to England and shag your kids and you Labour will be to blame. If you voted tory then u r responsible for increased poverty in this country, for families who work will have to survive on their salary because Tosborne wants to cut their tax credits so he can attempt to achieve a pie in the sky surplus. get off this site, you moron!!!