WE thought we would have a look at the performance of the all the parties in Harlow. This is just one journalist’s view on matters and you may disagree but this piece is about analysing Labour for good or for bad.

Statistics

First things first. In many ways they didn’t perform badly.

Compared to 2019, they polled more votes in every ward bar two (Church Langley and Mark Hall).

You take a ward like Bush Fair.

In 2019, Labour polled 615 votes. In 2021, they polled 916. Trouble is, the Conservatives polled 963 in 2021, compared to 438 in 2019.

Why 525 more people in the Bush Fair ward turned up to vote is something we will cover in another piece.

Why didn’t they stand on their record?

We know there will be people who will say, what record? but Harlow Labour has a record they could be proud of or at the very worst, big up.

This reporter has sat (remotely) in every council, cabinet, planning, scrutiny and licensing meeting. A lot of good work has been done by a Labour-run Harlow Council but they seemed to have been very quiet on it.

At no stage, did anyone say the following: “From Icon Industrial, Public Health England, Harlow and Gilston Garden Town, a new Princess Alexandra Hospital, Junction 7a of the M11, the Science Park, a Labour-run Harlow Council has been an integral part of the regeneration of the town.

There are the jewels in the crown of the Harlow Playhouse, Harlow Town Park, Pets Corner.

They had Harlow Carnival, Harlow Educational Awards, Celebrate Harlow.

We know a lot of these events have not taken place but they can still reference them.

“We also have Discover Harlow, a new Harlow Business Forum etc etc…you get our drift.

From a cosmetic point of view: Improvements to Oakwood Pond, Netteswell Pond, a constant programme of cleaning and greening through in house partnership with HTS

The golden rule is that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. Not the other way round.

In short, they never really looked as if they were proud of Harlow.

In fact, Proud of Harlow was a campaign started by former leader of Harow Council, Jon Clempner.

However there seemed to be a cultural change when the leadership went from Jon Clempner to Mark Ingall.

It came across as a banner waving, stand outside protesting down with that sort of thing, shouty group.

No wonder their campaign mainly centred on what others had not done (potholes) and not what they had achieved.

Covid

Harlow Labour has done a lot of great work supporting the community over Covid. The Covid recovery group led by Labour’s Eugenie Harvey was a vital hub of information and support. No mention. We rang Cllr Harvey re this but she did not reply.

The business grants. They have given out a huge amount of business grants but allowed the Tories to dominate the argument that people were being left out. This issue almost summed up the campaign. They keep letting the Tories dictate the agenda.

The missing campaigners

Time and time again we saw a handful of Labour activists walking the streets. Our hearts go out to councillors such as Mark Ingall, who really gave it his all. Some such as Chris Vince were everywhere supported by Phil Waite, Kay Morrison and a few others but there were far too many that we can only conclude were on the witness protection scheme.

Yes, we understand re Covid but a town of 85,000 and constituency Labour Party that must have hundreds of members could only muster four or five people to do the campaigning day in and day out?

There will have been an element of tit for tat. Some did not campaign for Jeremy Corbyn/Laura McAlpne and so some either point blank refused to come out or did their very minimum.

This should be a wake up call for Harlow Labour. They may well be out of power for at least three years and if there is a restructuring of local government, then that could be it.

Whether they will have a proper post mortem is a moot idea but if they do, then they’ve to get out of the mindset of evil Tories this and evil Tories that. 13,938 people turned out to vote Conservative. They are not evil, misguided, deluded etc. Your job is to persuade them not to mock them.

In fact if there was a number of tweets that summed up the Harlow Labour campaign then it was messages referring, sneeringly, to the Conservative candidate for Harlow Common, James Leppard as an ex-banker. You just wonder what message that sends out to those who are bankers in Harlow or work in the city or young students who aspire to work in bankers.

If money was to be mentioned, it should be that we have seen another year where a Labour run Harlow Council has delivered a balanced budget. Not a mention.

National Picture

There will be those who are quick to point to the Hartlepool result but there will be others who will point to Wigan where all 57 Labour councillors were returned or the success of mayors such as Andy Burnham or areas such as Folkestone and Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.

There may be many other national factors and one that have impact for Harlow Labour.

Harlow has a huge amount of people in furlough, many people who have benefitted from the self employment scheme. Both schemes may have been life savers. it may still be too early to tell or again, it may not be a one size fits all.

We will look at other factors later.

Conclusion.

Harlow Labour need to have a long hard look at themselves. They need a recruitment campaign, they need to ditch the comrade and ashes look. They need to cheer up a bit and need to bring themselves in to the 21st century.

They need candidates/councillors who have a love for their ward and a link with their ward. They need representatives that are inextricably linked and act like bindweed with their community.

Our hearts got out to Mark Ingall who is a good good man, close to tears on Thursday night. We hope he remains in local politics. There are too many talented people involved in Harlow Labour who we would like to see back at the heart of local democracy.

Ironically, the one thing that was missing from their campaign was hope. The one thing they need now is…hope.

Good luck to Harlow Labour, it is not going to be easy but it is achievable. The recovery starts here.