Author Archives: Hannah Kitching

Party reforms are crucial for our fightback

By Hannah Kitching | Tue 15th February 2022 - 10:52 am

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Our party has come a long way since the devastating general election defeat of 2019, when we lost many people including our then leader, Jo Swinson.

As someone standing in a Northern Leave-voting seat, I saw firsthand the effect of the mistakes that cost us so dearly in that campaign and which Dorothy Thornhill’s post-election review documented so clearly.

We must not make the same mistakes again – and that means fixing the party systems and structures that let us down in 2019.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged Dorothy Thornhill review, featured, party reforms, spring conference 2022 and Thornhill report | 29 Comments

Batley & Spen – Labour win is shock but Lib Dems kept Tories out

By Hannah Kitching | Fri 2nd July 2021 - 8:50 am

First – huge congratulations to Kim Leadbeater. Brand new to politics, she was absolutely thrown to the wolves in this campaign, but she survived it. The fight between Labour and Galloway was bitter and divisive, the last thing this community needed. I hope that Kim will be a compassionate and healing MP and I wish her luck.

Honestly, as someone who has been campaigning and knocking on doors in this election, the result has come as a huge shock. I thought the Conservatives would walk it. Perhaps that tells you something about the areas we targeted – our locally held ward of Cleckheaton and our adjacent target of Birstall and Birkenshaw are very much Tory leaning. Our campaign focussed on keeping that local election vote with us, rather than letting it slide back to the Tories.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged batley and spen by-election 2021, featured and progressive alliance | 67 Comments