fighting the norwich north by-election

Chris Ostrowski was Labour's candidate in Norwich. He writes about his experience.

After spending every weekend for months on end campaigning in the Eastern region and then four weeks solid out on the stump during the European election campaign as a candidate, there was nothing I was looking forward to more on Friday 5th June than putting my feet up and booking a holiday.

It wasn’t to be! At around mid-day I got a phone call and numerous texts from comrades who told me that Dr Ian Gibson had resigned his seat and that there was going to be a by-election in Norwich North.

Now here was a difficult decision; I wanted to go for it because I know Norwich well and I had become ever more convinced throughout my time as a European candidate that Labour politics was something I wanted to devote more time to. But weighing against that was the justifiable anger of the Norwich North voters about the treatment of their MP and the added personal pressure of fighting another election so soon after the first one.

After a lot of careful thought and prayer I decided to put my name forward. I spoke to my employers who were incredibly supportive as well as my close friends and family – everyone advised me to “go for it”.

The selection process was one of the most rigorous and unpredictable procedures I have ever had to go through; two rounds of brutal interviews in London were followed by a final selection meeting at a hotel in Norwich. A few years had past since I had lived in Norwich, and I wasn’t well known to all the Party members in Norwich North, so I did not consider myself to be the favourite of the final four candidates.

I spoke to the party members about how and why I joined the Christian Socialist Movement and how that led me to joining the Labour Party. I particularly focussed on the challenges we have in making the party more relevant to young people and to single interest groups and how we could run a campaign that would have a unifying effect on the party in Norwich. I was delighted when the party members elected me to be the candidate, but there was no time to waste; polling day was just 25 days away!

The campaign itself was an incredible experience; I had very valuable support from some of the churches in the city and I saw what fantastic work many of the community groups were doing for the most vulnerable. Norwich is a city that has made huge progress under a Labour council and a Labour government over the last 12 years, but there is still so much more to do.

The main issue of the election was the expenses scandal and how the Labour party dealt with Dr Ian Gibson and on this issue we were politically vulnerable; but we did win support with examples of how many of our policies were helping families who were most in need. And – whenever possible – I articulated the positive vision that I have for Norwich North.

The support of CSM members was invaluable during the campaign. We very much knew the power of people praying for us, and it was wonderful to have CSM members coming to Norwich to tramp the streets with us. On one occasion the whole CSM office team decamped to Norwich for the day. So many thanks.

Despite being struck down with swine flu and finishing second, I did enjoy the experience enormously and it has made me all the more convinced of why we need the Labour Party and a Labour government to create a fairer and more equal society.

Chris Ostrowski, 10/08/2009

Tags: norwich north