The United Kingdom (UK)’s Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton, Kate Osamor has revealed what she and the Labour Party did in order to win an election into the British parliament.
According to Osamor, she put together a manifesto that addressed the needs of people who were downtrodden and who do not know how often they will be paid their salaries.
The British MP added that she reached out to such people in Edmonton in order to convince them to vote for her.
Osamor disclosed this in Abuja when she visited the leadership of the All progressives Congress (APC) at the Party’s National Secretariat.
During the visit, Osamor also narrated the challenges faced by her political party, Labour Party, in the build-up to the June 8 Snap General Election in the United Kingdom which gave her the opportunity to be part of the Nigerians that became MPs.
She said: “One of the things which the Labour Party had to do to be successful in our last snap general election was to reach out to the people who are downtrodden, the people who are working for minimum wage or on contracts when they don’t know how often they will be paid.
“We had to look at all the issues and put a manifesto together which spoke to them. Because when we when into the snap general elections, as far as the commentators were saying, as far as people in our own party were saying, we were going to be in the dustbin of history, we would have to start again.
“But what the manifesto did was open up the eyes and ears of young people, of people who had access to vote but never voted and for those people who voted for the first time. If we had not done that, we wouldn’t have got to a point where we were able to have a hung parliament.”
Osamor said that the UK’s Labour Party was ready to share its experiences, good practices and work with the APC.
“We are very happy to share our experiences with you. Because it shows that no party is standstill. At points the party may feel that it is going through a difficult phase, how do we get out of it? But we are going through that and we assist the party so we will obviously work together and share good practice,” she said.
She thanked the APC leadership for its support and promised to extend the Party’s well-wishes to the current seven UK MPs of Nigerian descent.
The MPs are: Chi Onwurah, Fiona Onasanya, Chuka Umunna, Helen Grant, Abimbola Afolami, Kemi Badenoch and Kate Osamor.
Chief Executive Officer, Westminister Foundation for Democracy, Anthony Smith, who accompanied the visiting UK MP called on political parties to be responsive to voters’ concerns before and after elections.
He stated that the UK and Nigerian political party system were similar as major parties were required to have a national spread and reach.
“Our foundation works with all the major parties in the UK and I think that there are some things that we have in common with Nigeria which is that the two major Parties in each of our countries to win the elections, they need to reach out across the whole country.
“That makes us a bit different from for example many of the parties in other European countries which tend to have big coalitions with many parties that have a narrower support base. Our two countries I think have reached out a bit further to appeal to the whole country.
“It is very important for our parties to respond to voters concerns, not just in a few weeks before the election but after the election till the next. I think a programme that enables us to share experiences between parties is very important and we are very happy to be partners with you,” he said.
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