Who is going to put Labour’s ‘ming vase’ back together if it shatters? - Ismail Mulla

It was, dare I say, almost dour. In these early, tentative days of government, the Labour frontbenchers give off the air of middle managers having finally landed the top job in their departments but now realise that the work might just be harder than it looked from lower down the food chain.

But perhaps the most interesting observation that can be made about the recent general election is how both Labour and the Tories had abandoned grassroots campaigning.

The strength of the Conservatives is usually in winning the ‘air war’. By that, I mean they are adept at getting their message across in the media. While Labour, with its strong trade union ties, would excel in the ‘ground war’ - knocking on people’s doors, making connections in local communities and generally galvanising grassroots support.

The capitulation of the Tories meant they were never going to be able to lean into their strength. In the end they were reduced to begging the electorate not to give them such a kicking that it would give Labour a supermajority. And a supermajority is exactly what they got.

However, it seems Labour had decided that it was best to not even try to lean into its grassroots resources.

Here in Dewsbury, there was little door knocking. For a candidate that had been parachuted in, you’d think they would have put more emphasis on getting her credentials across and showing that she was willing to face the public.

What I did get was a slew of YouTube adverts. So a big tick to whoever ran the paid for advertising campaign, or whoever signed off the payment for them, or even both.

Yet there was little to no canvassing in and around these parts. The parliament prospective candidate (PPC) had pictures taken with activists but many of these people were bussed in.

Maybe local Labour members just didn’t want to be associated with the national party. There were already fissures evident during the local elections over the issue of Gaza.

The independent in the end did prevail, funnily enough he was the only one door knocking in our neighbourhood.

It would be easy to dismiss this lack of canvassing as a Dewsbury & Batley trend but then I’ve spoken to friends and colleagues in other parts of the country and they noticed a similar lack of grassroots engagement.

We even had some letters in the pages of this august title complaining about a lack of face to face campaigning.

Is it that technology has become so ubiquitous that politicians no longer feel the need to use shoe leather? In the future, we could well end up being governed by remote technocrats who make decisions based on algorithms, lived experience be damned. Actually going out and speaking to people? Are you out of your mind?

The only means of communication being the short-burst kind on social media and even then many elected representatives are choosing to limit responses, rightly or wrongly.

Don’t even get started on contacting constituency offices. I mean, they’re probably better than doctors’ surgeries at responding but that’s a low bar.

There’s something about being able to look the electorate in the eye and talking to them about their concerns. It’s democracy at its purest. No social media anonymity, no hiding behind comms speak in a written letter.

Now, I am not blind to the challenges MPs face. And the safety concerns they have are more than legitimate. We saw it firsthand in this region when Jo Cox was murdered in 2016. And it wasn’t that long ago that Sir David Amess was also murdered as he held a constituency surgery.

But we are losing an important part of our democracy if those who wish to represent us no longer feel safe or simply don’t feel it’s necessary to turn up on the doorstep and make a convincing argument,

It’s a reminder especially to those who do get carried away during elections that fear and intimidation is going to leave everyone impoverished.

Every MP needs to learn the art of persuasion, the ability to show empathy and being present in the communities they represent.

Labour didn’t need to leverage its grassroots strength this time around but eventually the Tories will snap out of their circle of self-destruction. At that point, the bods at Labour’s central HQ will be reaching for the dusty old phone book and scrabbling around for volunteers to pound the pavement.

By then it might be too late. That ming vase may well shatter and its fragments even harder to put back together.

Ismail Mulla is the Comment Editor of The Yorkshire Post.