Is there a local by-election in your area this Thursday? Read on for our latest recommendations, followed by an update from friends in our community about the powerful and important work they’re doing. |
Thursday's local by-elections |
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There have been many local by-elections throughout the year and we’ve been providing advice in them to stop the Tories and Reform. As you may know, local by-elections don’t often see very high turnouts, and the areas are quite small, so a handful of votes can really be the difference between Reform taking a council seat or not - it’s incredibly important to vote in them if you have one! Here are the elections for tomorrow, along with which party you should vote for to defend your council from the Tories and Reform: |
You can also view which areas have elections on our website: |
Allowing Reform into our councils makes them much more powerful when the General Election comes around, so it’s extremely important that we stop them wherever we can. Please use your vote if you have one tomorrow, and tell anyone you may know who lives in the area to do so too. |
While our primary goal remains defeating Reform at the polls, the battle extends far beyond election days. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the work that people in our network have been undertaking: |
We face the real danger of a Reform UK victory in the next general election. Tactical voting will be our main weapon, but it isn’t as effective in some seats as it is in others. In some constituencies there isn’t a clear progressive candidate for the community to unite behind. But there could be a solution to this!
In South Devon, one of these seats, a local campaign group set out to fix this dilemma by running a primary. Local residents were given the opportunity to vote for their preferred progressive candidate, and the community agreed to back the chosen candidate in the general election. |
It was a huge success. Residents (including Labour and Green supporters) came together to elect the Liberal Democrat candidate, chosen by the primary, and ended 100 years of consecutive Conservative victories in the area. Now they want to share how it’s done, so it can be repeated by people up and down the country. To do this, they’re creating a practical, punchy graphic book. Written by two co-founders of the South Devon Primary and brought to life by a brilliant designer-illustrator, it tells the story of how one community overcame apathy and party loyalties to take back political power. It’s a story of a community success, but it’s also a guide for how voters everywhere can do the same in 2029 - with or without the blessing of the parties. To help them bring it to life, you can support the crowdfunder here: |
The campaign for Proportional Representation |
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Make Votes Matter is leading the charge to ensure Proportional Representation sits at the heart of political debate in 2026. With the Government set to publish an Elections and Democracy Bill next spring, there is a clear and urgent need to address our broken voting system. |
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Working alongside the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Fair Elections, Make Votes Matter has supported the publication of the Terms of Reference for a National Commission on Electoral Reform. The Commission would examine the evidence and design a fair, proportional voting system to replace First Past the Post. The APPG is now the largest in Westminster, with 158 MPs and Peers backing the call for fair votes, a powerful signal that momentum for reform is growing across Parliament. “Millions of votes don’t count. We’re changing that.” ~MVM To find out more about how Make Votes Matter is working to ensure every voice is heard and every vote truly counts, you can take a look at their website or even consider joining them: |
Public ownership scorecard |
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We Own It, a campaign for public ownership, have launched a scorecard comparing the main parties on their public ownership policies. The Green Party score highest with Zack Polanski making public ownership of water a cornerstone of his campaign. Your Party also scored highly based on statements about focusing on a nationalising agenda, although their official policy platform is yet to be finalised. Whilst Labour’s reforms on rail are heading in the right direction, in other areas they face a serious challenge on public ownership from both their left and right flanks. Their recently published NHS 10-year plan contains concerning proposals to reintroduce a form of potentially wasteful PFI to fund Neighbourhood Health Centres. |
Reform UK is a mixed bag, scoring low on their NHS privatisation plans, but high on water and energy. In the devolved nations we can see good progress from the Scottish National Party, running water in public ownership, delivering cheaper bills and higher levels of investment. In Wales, Plaid Cymru says it wants “full control over our natural resources” and a sovereign wealth fund, making the case for a new publicly owned energy generation company. |
A more progressive Labour |
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With the support of Open Labour and many others, Compass has launched Mainstream - a new hopeful and purposeful vehicle to turn the Labour Party back once again to the direction of hope and that more progressive and plural future. Read more about why, and what you can do: |
“Mainstream is the home for Labour’s radical realists - united by values, driven by change. For everyone who knows that to transform the country and take on the populist right, Labour must offer popular, principled and practical left politics for meaningful change.” |
There’s been a lot to cover so let’s keep this wrap-up brief… (Hopefully the word “wrap” doesn’t evoke too much panic in those who still have bare gifts at the back of the wardrobe!) We send these emails to shine a light on the great work being done by those who are pushing towards a fairer Britain and to give simple ways you can get involved. It’s part of keeping the momentum going and making an impact between election cycles. We aim to cover a variety of campaigns that may appeal to different people among our readers. If there’s a campaign out there you think we should know about, please reply and let us know. We’re much stronger when more of us act together, so please help us to grow our readership by inviting your friends to sign up here: TheMovementForward.com Thanks for being part of this, and thank you for reading! |
The Movement Forward team |
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We will email again soon, and from time to time with updates from The Movement Forward, Swap My Vote and our other projects, news, and campaigns that could help to defend and develop democracy, electoral reform and digital democratic tools. You can unsubscribe at any time from the link in the footer of any of these emails, and this will not affect any participation in the tools themselves. You can read Swap My Vote's privacy policy here: https://swapmyvote.uk/privacy and Forward Democracy's privacy policy here: https://forwarddemocracy.com/privacy-policy/ |
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