The Tory Who Backed Labour
How did we get here?
Over a decade ago, Gavin Callaghan knocked on my door trying to persuade me to vote Labour in the middle of the UKIP wave. Brexit was the talk of the country, and Labour, much like today, weren’t singing in tune with the rest of it — or at least my side of it.
Despite that fundamental disagreement, I saw something in Gavin I liked. I may not have told him, and I certainly don’t like admitting it today, but he had a zeal about him, a real ambition. Over time I came to respect him, and I respect him now. He showed a lot of people, myself included, what can be done if you put your mind to it.
Fast forward through a couple of local election campaigns — one of us rather more successful than the other — and I certainly felt his wrath. Now I find myself hosting a podcast with the former Labour leader of Basildon Council.
To many this will seem surprising. Odd, even, that two former political foes can debate and disagree with a great deal more respect than you’ll see on social media, or in politics as a whole.
A council chamber like Basildon’s runs on friction, tension, hostility and aggression, with seldom any compromise. But compromise is possible. That pursuit of it, for the greater good, is why this podcast exists.
As many of you know, during the most recent local election campaign I backed Gavin to keep control of the council. As someone firmly on the right of British politics, that compromise didn’t come easy. I’ve been getting stick for it ever since.
And despite ruining Gavin’s plans in the 2021 local elections as a Conservative, I’d changed my mind: I wanted an arena. I wanted town centre regeneration. I wanted new business. I wanted new opportunity. I wanted the prospect of prosperous town that maybe one day my own daughter will come to appreciate. It wasn’t to be.
So now Gavin and I have launched Common Ground, because left and right can sometimes meet in the middle.
Subscribe to the show. We’ll be regularly picking apart the nuances of local council business while also taking on national affairs, such as: where the UK is heading and where we’d actually take it if we were in charge. We might even debate a pothole or two.
Common Ground is the only place to talk local politics — and in a town like Basildon, there’s a lot to talk about.