Local Election Day, Chepstow: St Kingsmark Ward

Today was my second experience of working for the Labour Party on the day of an actual election. It’s different to standard #labourdoorstep as everything intensifies and the stakes are much higher, with the whole job and working life of a politician who is standing for election being up for grabs. Today, we met down at Marg’s Chepstow Town Centre Campaign HQ, where young first time candidate, Amy Thompson-Lancaster was looking worried and nervous and was convinced that she had no chance of being elected. St Kingsmark Ward in Chepstow is quite an affluent area and has been a Tory seat for some time. We would be going up against the odds. I reassured Amy that the whole country is witnessing a sea of change and that she should remain hopeful and optimistic. Plus we were going out on the doors to give her a final blast and to drag the voters if necessary down to the booths to put a cross in the box next to her name.

There was only a small team of us but we went out keen and with a sense of duty. We marched up the long hill to St Kingsmark and set about our task. The three of us in our little team were relentless. I have never worked so passionately for Labour in my life. I am no longer a newbie, I’m quite seasoned with what I am doing with voters on the door, and have confidence and belief in the Party. We did hit a lot of undecided voters and many of them agreed that they must make a journey down to the booth to cast their potentially critical vote today.

We had a brief pause for some lunch and then went back out. I reckon that today I hit alone a couple of hundred houses at least. After we had finished for the day I was shattered. I reiterated to Amy that she was going to win and headed back on the bus to home in Caldicot. I was going to be gutted if our wokr had been in vain. On my first ever day doing #labourdoorstep we won a local by-election in Chepstow. I have a knack, you see, for dethroning local Conservatives. I stayed up for most of the night and at around 3am I asked my Amazon Alexa for the election results. It had been a Labour victory and Amy was now the political representative for St Kingsmark Ward. The taste of victory is sweet and when you get to immediately realise the fruits of your Labour they sure taste sweet.

As much as I might pat myself on the back for the hard work that has been completed, the main task is yet to come and we have to get Catherine Fookes elected for the whole of Monmouthshire. Incumbent Tory MP, David Davies, who is a government cabinet minister, as Secretary of State for Wales, is a more formidable opponent and won’t just be lazing around like a dog, waiting to be tickled. The hard work lies ahead and the challenge is on. The mood is ebullient and Labour will win at the #generalelection to come.