Labour is preparing a frantic last-minute operation to get the vote out in London. Rattled…
Take this communiqué emailed to Labour members in St Giles ward in Southwark and leaked to Guido. This should be safe for Labour…
Southwark has seen doorknocking visits from both Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham in recent weeks, which indicates the level of concern. Next week it’s Lucy Powell…
Highlights include only delivering to council estates and not to street addresses on polling day and trying to co-operate with the Greens at polling stations:
“If Labour is to retain all 3 seats in St Giles Ward at the election on Thursday then our Polling Day operation will be vital to that success. The Greens will be mounting a full-on campaign on the day to get their vote out. We have to match and better that. This means members will have to step up to the plate and devote as much time as they can on the day. There are two principal roles members can play on the day – polling station tellers and knocking on the door of Labour supporters to get them to vote.1. TellersThis is a vitally important role. In essence you sit outside one polling station and write down the numbers off electors polling cards as they come/exit to vote. The Greens will be here too but are usually friendly and you can share the data from one another during busy periods. The reason for doing this role is because every hour the numbers are collected and returned to our committee rooms and the identified Labour voters are crossed off our overall list. This means we don’t waste time knocking them up to vote later on the day and we can focus on those Labour voters who haven’t voted yet.There are 6 polling stations open from 7am to 10pm. This means 6.x 15 hours = 90 hours to get covered. Therefore we need as many members as possible to offer up their time whether for an hour or more and perhaps splitting between morning, afternoon and evening sessions. Without members volunteering to do this we will lose this critical part of our operations on the day which will result in a lower Labour turnout and the potential loss of seats.2. Knocking-UpDuring the day we will need members to knock on the doors of Labour promises to ensure they come out and vote on the day. As with tellers you can split your time to help out during different parts of the day. Again without this activity occurring it will result in a lower Labour turnout and the potential loss of seats.3. Early morning leaflet dropFor those insomniacs amongst you there will be an early leaflet drop reminding electors to vote between the hours of 5-7am. We will only be delivering this to the estates and not the street properties.All the above roles are not mutually exclusive so you can try your hand at all of them if you so wish. The main Labour Committee Rooms for the day will be based at [REDACTED] you can pop in and out of there all day and there will be drinks and refreshments on hand.Please volunteer as the more hands we get will make light work on the day.Please step forward and help secure our 3 Council seats for Labour!”
Starmer spoke to Nick Robinson for the Today Programme on Polanski’s criticism of the Golders Green police officers:
“I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left. There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here. In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy…
Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”