I have a definite case of the "morning after the night before", so forgive any incoherence or spelling / grammatical errors! But what a night it was. Exeter Labour had gone into these elections hoping that we could pick up the two additional seats we needed to take overall control of the city council. The two seats we had identified as the most likely targets had been Alphington and St James - anything else (including Pinhoe) would have been a bonus.
In the event, Labour won 5 seats in the city. St James and Alphington were won comfortably by Keith Owen and Rob Crew respectively, but there was also a surprise win in St David's for Sarah Laws who unseated long-serving Lib Dem Councillor Philip Brock. In Polsloe, Rachel Lyons achieved something of a "decapitation", by unseating the Tory Deputy Leader, Councillor James Taghdissian. And then there was Pinhoe.
At 10pm last night, we could have done no more, the team had given everything. Months of campaigning, canvassing, delivering leaflets, and phoning, and then yesterday's frenetic activities and last minute "knocking-up" (nagging and dragging every last voter we could to the polling stations) ended as polls closed at 10pm. On the surface of it, things did not look good. Turnout, it seemed, was particularly poor in our "core areas" of the Summerway estate and Arena Park. Turnout was markedly higher in the polling stations of the Hall Church in Pinhoe village and Pinhoe School - traditionally areas where the Conservative vote is stronger. The mood in our Committee Room was sober. We all knew how much every member of the team had put into this campaign, yet the indicators were not great. I was exhausted and convinced we had not made it, but Jenny took me home to get changed, and we headed to the count at the Corn Exchange.
Cllr Ian Martin, who had earlier looked quite grim-faced, came to find me in the bar of the Corn Exchange. "It's not looking too bad for you," he said. Ian has done a wonderful job of keeping my feet firmly placed on the ground throughout the campaign, frequently reminding us all of the scale of the task. For him, "not looking too bad" comes close to exuberance! I walked through to the counting area, where a row of Tories, including my opponent and her husband, had taken every seat at the counting tables. Piles were building up nicely in the trays, and I noted a significant chunk going into the UKIP tray. In previous elections, a strong UKIP vote had been at the expense of the Conservatives, so I wondered if this might be a factor here. As the counting staff began "bundling" the votes into 100s, my opponent left the table, soon followed by her Conservative chums. Cllr Ian Martin leant over to me. "If you hit 950, Dom [our election agent] reckons you've got it," he said, "and I think there's over 1000 there." The counter looked up from her work at us, and nodded.
The final result was that I had polled 1022 votes, to the Conservatives' 742. A majority of 280 and far beyond anything we had expected. Even if all of the 240 UKIP votes had gone to the Tories, Labour still would have won. Furthermore, turnout across the ward as a whole was the highest in Exeter, and higher than most recent elections here, at 43.34%.
I was hugely helped by the fact that there were no elections in Mincinglake this year, which meant that my Labour branch (Mincinglake & Pinhoe) were able to focus solely on my campaign. I had the most incredible team behind me, and everybody played a part. I remember shortly after my selection being nervous as I was introduced to local party "matriarchs" Cllr Saxon Spence and former Cllr Val Dixon. What they do not know about Pinhoe and its political make-up is not worth knowing. Every so often I would informed by one or other of them that there was a library meeting, a coffee morning, a play that "it would do you no harm to be at" - so I quickly met community leaders and activists, and started to become known. Cllr Moira MacDonald showed me a few areas in the ward where she had been particularly busy with casework, and together with Cllrs Ian Martin, Catherine Dawson & Rosie Denham gave me some useful introductions to life within Exeter City Council.
Rose Gander has the gift of administration. What an organiser! Rose worked tirelessly on timetables, rotas and lists of actions, emailing instructions and timelines to every member of the team so everyone knew what they needed to be doing. She was a regular link with Dom, our local party organiser, who was joined later in the campaign by his predecessor Eddie Lopez. Dom and Eddie have a very effective good cop / bad cop double act. Dom will not let any complacency or laziness creep in, not even for a moment, and would regularly email round graphs of which ward teams were performing best at contacting their voters and securing promises of votes. Whenever I asked Dom how it was looking, I got the same answer, "It's going to be tough." His direction and advice ensured we all stayed working to the last minute. Eddie has seen it all before, and in the run-up to election day he was a relaxed presence in HQ, smiling and staying positive while providing intense analysis with Dom of the latest indicators; and I shall always remember him whistling "The Internationale" as he went off to the kitchen to make me a cup of tea while I was phone canvassing.
My delivery team, co-ordinated by Rose, were stars. Geoff who single-handedly delivered for me in Monkerton throughout the campaign was incredible, as were Gareth & Angie who drummed up support on the Summerway estate. The whole ward was often covered in under a week. My canvassing team included some "wise heads" in Peter, Dereen and Ted but were joined by local Labour student Kit. Other local councillors came to help including Tony Wardle, Greg Sheldon and our Council Leader Pete Edwards. Several times I was also joined by local MP Ben Bradshaw and his team. Des would input the canvassing data, and Dom would then give us a strategic steer based on what that data was telling us. On election day, we had teams of "tellers" collecting voter stats at the polling stations, and this included Susan who did several stints and was also featured in the election address leaflet together with Val as my endorsers. Last, but yesterday was by no means least was, Julia who played "hostess" in the committee room keeping the team fed and watered every time we checked in. Julia had also acted as something of an "intelligence officer", often scanning and emailing the latest Tory leaflets, so we knew what tactics they were seeking to use in their campaign. I know there were many others who phoned, knocked, delivered, stuffed envelopes... it was a huge, huge team effort, and I would not have won without them. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to support me.
Thank you too, to the voters of Pinhoe. We know turnout was low in the areas that most traditionally vote Labour in the ward, which means significant numbers of people voted for me in Pinhoe village - possibly against their usual voting patterns. I am under no illusion that trust has been invested in me by people who are "giving me a chance", and who will see what I can do for them. I acknowledge that responsibility, and will work hard for - and be accountable to - my residents. I am only too pleased however that I do not undertake that task alone, but do so as part of a unified Labour team of two Labour City Councillors, a Labour County Councillor and a Labour MP. I look forward to working for and with you.
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