Stoke: 'Local Conservative' terminology explained and other local election questions

Over the past few years, voters have been noticing a shift in wording on their ballot papers.

There have been more Conservative candidates badging themselves as 'local Conservatives' in their campaign materials and on voting slips.

'What is a Local Conservative?' Is a question that has been asked in Nub News Facebook comment section across the land.

There's a feeling that this is an effort by people standing in council elections to distance themselves from the turmoil of the party nationally.

To help clear things up, we spoke to Dr Philip Catney, a senior lecturer in politics at Keele University, to find out what he makes of the issue.

Dr Catney said Conservative candidates in local elections wanted to distance themselves from the likes of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson to give themselves the best chance of winning.

He explained: "The local Conservatives clearly feel like they are an endangered species in Stoke-on-Trent.

"Putting 'local' and trying to separate themselves from the antics at Westminster is at the forefront of their minds."

He said that a similar thing happened in the 1990s when many Conservatives wanted to disassociate themselves from John Major's government during its final days – despite not using the term 'local Conservative' back then.

He said: "It's not new for politicians to seek to distance themselves from an unpopular national government.

"And I don't blame them – if you're a Conservative and you've looked at what's happened down at Westminster you must be filled with despair.

"You may well be a person who's given dozens of years of your life to the party and to your local area, serving it, and then feel you're going to be punished because of what happened at Westminster.

"There are good reasons – it's not necessarily an insincere thing to do to point out that you're not them, you're not Boris Johnson or Liz Truss.

"But what I'd ask the local Conservatives is what do they think went wrong in Westminster that they don't want to be blamed for?"

He said despite trying to separate themselves, voters may still see them as being one and the same.

Dr Catney said: "There is a sense they are different political units, however it doesn't get away from the problem that people are going to attribute blame for things.

"I don't see anything particularly wrong in being open and saying 'don't blame us, blame them' if you are a local Conservative.

"You may well feel hard done-by, and that the national Conservatives have let you down but it doesn't reflect what you're doing as a local party with local ideas.

"They're not trying to hide behind different labels, they're trying to say 'we're local and we've tried to do the best by you.'

"Whether that actually works or not – we'll find out in May!"

Dr Catney also said attempts by local politicians to distance themselves from their parties at Westminster isn't exclusively something the Conservatives have to grapple with.

He said Welsh Labour has a different relationship with the national party than its branches in England.

In addition, he said many people remained Labour members during Jeremy Corbyn's tenure as Labour leader, despite having differing opinions.

He said that's to be expected, given both main parties are 'broad churches' where there is a wide spread of political opinion within them.

We wanted to see if what Dr Catney had said was backed up by someone standing as a local Conservative in May's elections.

We asked Dave Evans – who is currently the city council's cabinet member for children and young people as well as a Conservative councillor for Baddeley, Milton and Norton – for his views.

He said: "I'm someone who holds conservative values, I believe in financial prudence and I believe in ensuring our communities are well represented.

"I'm local for having lived in the area my entire life – my family have lived here for about 200 or 300 years so I'm probably the most local man you're ever going to meet.

"I think it's important that people understand this is a local election – it's about who runs your council, and who maintains council services and council investment.

"It's quite common in election campaigns for political parties of all colours to conflate local and national when it suits them.

"So, for example, Labour leaflets talk about more police on the streets which no local council can effect.

"So, I think it's an effort to ensure this local election is about the local politics of the city and the efforts local people are making to make lives better.

"It's no about who's going to walk into Number 10 Downing Street – it's about Jane Ashworth or Abi Brown for who should lead the city council, and I'd argue very firmly it should be Abi Brown."

The local elections take place on Thursday May 4, with town and city/borough elections both on the ballot.

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