Sorrow for Vassall

After a determined, exploitative and corrosive campaign against Labour by the Lib Dems in Vassall ward, we had to accept defeat at around midnight last night.

I was in the Assembly Hall at Lambeth Town Hall for the count, watching uncomfortably as the greater number of ballot papers stacked up for the Lib Dems.

In the end Labour's Andy Flannagan - a good comrade and hard-working campaigner - lost by 859 votes to identikit Lib Dem Steve Bradley's 1209. Andy, a candidate of substance and character, would have made an excellent councillor and I hope he goes the distance and is elected in 2010. As a by-election candidate myself, I know what it's like to be personally attacked by Lib Dems, and how hard Andy worked to promote a positive vision for the ward.

The weather was terrible - bitterly cold, windy and wet - for much of the day, which is never a good sign. The recent attacks on Ken Livingstone by the Evening Standard and various other warped anti-Labour messages exploited by the Lib Dems in their tsunami of leaflets, meant much of our hoped-for support stayed at home. There is much to learn from this defeat, and I hope that learning will make Labour in Lambeth stronger.

In my polling day role, cycling round the four polling stations from 7am to 10pm collecting numbers to take back to the committee rooms, I knew that we were not getting our voters out in sufficient numbers - particularly in the Labour-voting areas of the ward. But it was good to see so many Labour activists out on the streets, including many councillors from Lambeth and neighbouring boroughs, and Stephen Twigg braving the harsh weather without a coat.

We faced a swing to the Lib Dems which, if it were to be repeated on a wider scale in the GLA election, would give those charlatans more than enough votes to gain the marginal Lambeth and Southwark division. The challenge for Labour campaigners is to get out on the streets in bigger numbers and make sure that the terrible prospect of losing Val Shawcross as our assembly member, and Ken as our Mayor, is averted.

The Streatham Selection – congratulations to Chuka Umunna

It has been a demanding few months for Streatham Constituency Labour Party, choosing a candidate to fight the next general election and hopefully succeed Keith Hill as our Labour MP.

If you were a candidate, and there were 47 at the outset, including me, there were over 500 members to speak to, spread out across the eight wards of the constituency. Then there were websites to be created and leaflets to be written, printed and delivered, and a team of helpers to keep enthused.

It was always going to be hotly contested, with hopes and energies running high. In the end there can be only one politician smiling at the end of it.

That candidate emerged after a meeting on Saturday at Dunraven School, where I am a governor. The drama hall – what an apt location! – was packed with well over 200 Streatham members. Another 100 or so had voted by post.

My friend Chuka Umunna was the winner, with my friend Steve Reed coming a close second. My congratulations go to the former, and my commiserations to the latter. All the candidates on the shortlist – Dora Dixon-Fyle, Naz Sarkar and Cathy Ashley were the others – would make good MPs in their different ways, and whatever they choose to do in the future they can be proud that they made it as far as the shortlist and to a hustings which was perhaps the biggest CLP meeting Streatham has seen, certainly in my time as a member here.

I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, though I don’t regret putting my name forward. My affection for Streatham is such that I would have regretted not having done so. I had a lot of fun meeting members who, for whatever reason, don’t generally come to party meetings or come out campaigning and explaining to them what I believe in.

I learned a lot, both about the process and about the chemistry of local politics. I ended the process as an ordinary voting member, with a lot of sympathy for the remaining candidates, as well as sympathy for the members, who had been blitzed with paper, as well as phones and doorbells ringing at awkward moments. It’s a relief that it’s over, and we can now concentrate on working with Chuka to defend Streatham for Labour.

If I have a personal highlight, it was being given a teapot by an elderly couple, a kind gift which I will keep as an unusual memento. We had a long chat as I sat in an armchair with their one-eyed cat settled in my lap, and I remember thinking ‘this is the Labour Party I believe in, good, honest people, sharing time, experience, hopes, views and values.’