Going home to #unseatboris
Today I had the pleasure of heading back to my hometown of Uxbridge. I was doing something which I had previously ruled out as pointless: I was canvassing for Labour.

From 1997 until 2015, Uxbridge (later Uxbridge and South Ruislip) was represented in parliament by a local Tory, John Randall. Although I disagree with his views, he was a hard-working constituency MP, and built up a sizeable vote. In 2015, with Randall having retired, Boris Johnson was parachuted in, on the assumption, it was a safe seat. He won with a majority of 10,695.
Boris has never seen this job as particularly interesting, instead entertaining himself by playing at being Mayor of London or Foreign Secretary. This has left him with a relatively unhappy constituency, and they showed it, halving his majority to 5,034 in 2017.
Uxbridge and South Ruislip is now a marginal! Those thinking their vote is wasted can now rejoice. From within the party, the upshot is that it’s finally worth canvassing there.

That’s what today was about. Owen Jones organised a massive event to remind people that we can #unseatboris. It’s such an important seat (and Boris is such a deserving opponent) that Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer turned up, along with hundreds of grassroots campaigners.
We knocked on doors, to spread the good news — even Tories can be glad that Boris will have to finally pay attention to the area, lest we snatch it from him. Many people didn’t know — unless you were sad enough to check the vote numbers, why would you?
I went to one house which had not been canvassed by Labour in 20 years — the seat being totally unwinnable, locals like me would campaign elsewhere. But now, we’re back, and we’re ready to take it.
We need to show we’re a constant force in the area, whether at the likely general election, or at next year’s council elections. Tory Hillingdon Council are a microcosm of Theresa May’s party. Uninspiring, with no ideas, they pride themselves on freezing council tax, but manage it by cutting anything and everything.
I’m overjoyed that Uxbridge could get the Labour representation it needs. It doesn’t deserve its reputation as true blue — its social makeup is far more complex than that. We can win this seat. It’s just about getting the message out that people no longer have to accept a careerist MP. The foundations are built; now we need to keep up the momentum.
