Emma Best: If people don’t trust you to report their missed bin collection, they aren’t going to trust you to run the economy.

Emma Best is a London wide London Assembly Member and a councillor in Waltham Forest.

The Borough of Waltham Forest sits in a small corner of north-east London. Within that borough sits an even smaller corner of north-east London, Chingford, where we Conservatives have been holding on for some time.

Waltham Forest is an interesting borough, divided almost through the centre by the A406; a boundary for two very different communities. To the South sits the urban town centres of Leyton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow, punctuated by large tower blocks, busy high streets and an abundance of tubes, trains and safe parliamentary Labour seats. To the North is a predominantly suburban area served by two Overground stations and home to party grandee and ex-leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP.

Currently, Labour hold 45 seats on the Council (down from 47 after two Councillors lost the whip during the term) and the Conservatives hold 13. Spoiler alert: We won’t be fighting for control of the Council at next year’s local election.

However, with the next local election less than a year away we are still shaping up for an even fiercer contest than the last where we held all seats and came within nine votes of a gain. This time around three main challenges stand before us.

The first is battling through the reputation of the national party and the significant anger at those final years in power. I represent one of the safest wards, not only in Waltham Forest but London, and even in the 2021 local election we were worried by the amount of ‘sorry not this time (or ever)’ we were getting in response to Partygate. In terms of support for our national brand, it has only got worse from there.

This first challenge is compounded, of course, by the Farage resurgence through Reform. For us, it is a flashback to 2014 where UKIP picked up large swathes of votes in Chingford and cost us two Councillors (won by Labour through the split vote). We know this time around the threat is even larger than just over ten years ago.

Finally, like all areas of London positioned on the border of the capital, conversations with the changing electorate are consistent. New residents have moved from Hackney, Islington or Walthamstow – bringing the dominant politics of those areas with them. When you see a ‘for sale’ sign the occupants are usually an older couple looking to downsize and move into Essex – and often taking Conservative votes with them.

Bluntly, it is not the finest context from which one would relish fighting for election. However, there are positives.

Firstly in combatting the national picture. The scene is not hunky dory for us but perhaps less so for Labour. At the General Election they saw large swings away from them in the South of the borough – and that was before they had even taken office. We face a situation now where for the first-time in recent history councillors to the South will have to actually fight for their seats, reducing significantly the Goliath v. David ground war we have faced. Data also shows weakening support for Labour in Chingford where we also have the pretty unique situation (which deserves its own article) of Faiza Shaheen independence.

What we feel is the strongest string to our bow though is our local brand. This is somewhat a consequence of our incompetent local Labour administration that give us ample opportunity to provide loud and consistent opposition. However, undeniably it is also a result of the 2017 General Election where things took a turn for our once considered safe seat and we knew we had to do so much more to connect with residents. Since then, we are consistently one of the top constituencies for canvassing returns in the country and have cultivated a council group that puts community at the heart of everything it does. When we are going to residents to ask for their vote, we are not calling for the first time. We are also not bound to hoping they’ve shifted opinion on the national party or left to threaten that a vote for Reform is a vote for Labour; we have a clear and compelling local message and record.

Next year’s local election is about more than retaining and extending Conservative representation at a local level. It is about our party’s revival which must start at the grassroots. If people don’t trust you to report their missed bin collection, they aren’t going to trust you to run the economy.

The most loyal of local activists must be willing to double their workload and pull hard in a united direction. The weight of the task is huge, but the weight of failure even more so. Labour are wreaking havoc on our economy, justice and school system and the centre-right of UK politics cannot be vacated by the party of Disraeli, Churchill and Thatcher.

It is hard to see how the chips fall right now, but locally we are up for the challenge and ready to stand on our record. The truth is there has never been a more important time to fight for our Conservative values and principles, , or we may well lose them forever.

The post Emma Best: If people don’t trust you to report their missed bin collection, they aren’t going to trust you to run the economy. appeared first on Conservative Home.