Cross-party campaigners are ‘proud to have played their part’ in ousting the Conservatives from every Tory-held seat in Oxfordshire for the first time in modern history.
On July 4th, something remarkable happened in Oxfordshire – the ‘blue’ was fully drained from the county and its political landscape turned on its head.
Compass Oxfordshire, a local group affiliated to the national cross-party campaign group Compass, argues that the new progressive Oxfordshire MPs owe their victory, at least in part, to tactical voting, and should waste no time in advocating for a more proportional system so tactical voting will never be necessary again.
In last week’s general election, Oxfordshire’s Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates made history by winning five seats, four of which were previously safe Conservative seats.
East Oxford and West Oxford & Abingdon, the county’s two central seats, were already progressive holds (Labour and Liberal Democrat respectively). But, aside from the newly created constituency of Bicester & Woodstock, the surrounding seats had been Conservative for some time, with Banbury and Henley Conservative-held for over 100 years.
Yet, on 4 July, all Oxfordshire’s non-city seats were won by progressive parties.
Compass Oxfordshire had endorsed the five winners – Charlie Maynard (Witney), Olly Glover (Didcot & Wantage), Freddie van Mierlo (Henley & Thame), Calum Miller (Bicester & Woodstock) (all LibDem) and Sean Woodcock (Banbury, Labour) – and urged voters to support them as the best-placed challengers to the Conservatives.
Crucial to these endorsements was that all the candidates are public advocates for proportional representation (PR), a voting system where everyone’s vote counts equally, politics is fairer, and Parliament reflects how we vote.
Across June, Compass Oxfordshire ran 15 stalls, distributed 15,000 flyers and created online messages designed to reach all its target voters. The group also installed Correx boards and featured in an article by Guardian writer, Gaby Hinsliff.
The election results indicate a large disparity between votes for the progressive winner and other progressive contenders. For example, the Witney Lib Dem candidate gained 20,832 votes against Labour’s 4,773; the Banbury Labour candidate won 18,468 votes against the Lib Dems’ 4,352. This disparity was evident across all five of the seats.
Also notable is the fact that, other than in Banbury, the vote for the Reform Party was insufficient to account for the Tory losses. Tactical voting is likely to have been the key factor.
Compass Oxfordshire views these voting patterns as supporting their work in highlighting which candidates were best-placed to defeat the Conservatives in each seat. They also indicate that Oxfordshire’s voters wanted change and used information on how to achieve it through effective tactical voting.
A spokesperson for Compass Oxfordshire said:
“Throughout our campaign we encouraged voters of many political persuasions to get behind our candidates and explained the significance of their support for electoral reform, something the low Labour vote share has brought into urgent relief.
“We are confident that tactical voting played a key role in securing Oxfordshire’s progressive victories, and that the progressive MPs we endorsed will waste no time in advocating for a fair voting system.
“This is a remarkable win for progressive politics that has contributed to the demise of Conservative seats nationally whilst radically changing the political landscape of Oxfordshire.”
Editor’s note: You can follow the changes over the years in the county here. Oxfordshire is not the only part of the UK which has become Tory-free: so have Cornwall and the whole of Wales. Not to mention Northern Ireland, where the main British parties do not run. Full details of national results on the BBC website.
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