In a medieval market town in rural eastern England, locals are gearing up to vote tactically in the July 4 general election by participating in a primary to select a challenger to the Conservatives.
Former local councillor John Lodge has organized an informal “people’s primary” to choose a candidate to unseat Kemi Badenoch, who is running for re-election as Saffron Walden’s MP.
The commuter town, part of the North West Essex constituency, has been a safe Tory seat since before World War II.
However, the primary is a reaction to “a really poor government over 14 years,” Lodge said. “Every day, someone asks, ‘who shall we vote for to get rid of Kemi?'”
He directs them to a website where voters can sign up for an online poll to choose their preferred candidate from the UK’s centre and left parties: Labour, Liberal Democrat, or Green.
“We’ve got around 400 subscribers to the website,” Lodge told, while showing a friend in a vinyl record store how to sign up.
The primary subscribers have overwhelmingly supported the Labour candidate, crowning them the “people’s champion.”
Primary organizers are urging anti-Conservative voters to back Labour instead of their usual party, claiming that if 50 percent of Lib Dem voters lend their support, the constituency could oust Badenoch.
Mark Starte, who runs the vinyl store, is skeptical that the primary will unite voters enough to succeed but hopes Badenoch will get a “much smaller majority” as a result.
Right-winger Badenoch is seen as a potential future Tory leader, but with Labour’s candidate just over two points behind her in one poll, Lodge hopes tactical voting will secure the town’s first non-Tory MP.
The UK’s winner-take-all electoral system has been criticized for disadvantaging smaller parties, who struggle to win seats despite gaining a chunk of the votes.
Left-wing voters say it is particularly unfair because their votes are often split across multiple parties.
In contrast, the Tories have largely remained the dominant force on the right.
The North West Essex primary is part of a network of informal primaries aiming to make the system “fairer” for “progressive” voters.
Simon Oldridge organized seven hustings in South Devon, southwest England, in March, in what he says was the country’s “first community-led political primary.”
In it, the public grilled the hopefuls before voting on who to back to defeat the Tory candidate in their constituency.
Voting to unite behind one candidate rather than guessing who to back tactically made people feel “for once their vote was going to count,” said Oldridge.
Over 1,000 people voted to support Lib Dem candidate Caroline Voaden.
Oldridge said the primary has “captured people’s imagination,” with banners popping up “all over the place” saying they will “lend their vote” to Voaden.
However, Labour and the Lib Dems have since forbidden their candidates to participate in the primary process.
Recent primaries have found ways to bypass candidate involvement by directing voters to locally organized hustings and holding secure online votes.
Oldridge said the decision showed that the main parties “didn’t like losing control to the electorate, that the electorate are actually starting to make these decisions themselves.”
Best for Britain, a campaign group making tactical voting suggestions based on nationwide polling, released recommendations for ousting Tory lawmakers in 451 seats last week.
“People are fed up,” said Cal Roscow, the group’s director of campaigns, adding that there is a huge appetite for tactical voting.
The organization found that more than a third of voters in 621 of the 650 parliament seats would vote tactically to change the government.
Like the primary organizers, Roscow emphasized that tactical voting is crucial because the UK does not have proportional representation.
“Best for Britain doesn’t like tactical voting. But until we change the voting system, it’s going to be something that’s part of our general elections,” he added.
“We’re trying to improve the way our politics works within our broken first-past-the-post system,” added Oldridge. “We’re starting something that’s potentially going to change politics.
“Our message to the parties is: bring proportional representation in, otherwise we’re just going to work around this.”
