In Uxbridge & South Ruislip, the Labour candidate Ali Milani is determined to achieve what none before have been able to: unseat a sitting Prime Minister.
Frederik Dahler, The Red-Green Alliance
In 2017, Boris Johnson won the constituency with a margin of only 5.034 votes. Now, his seat in Parliament is threatened by Milani whose grassroots campaign of hundreds of volunteers are knocking doors every single day to convince the historically Conservative constituency to abandon Prime Minister Boris Johnson and instead elect a local, working class, muslim immigrant. Between canvassing sessions, I have spoken with four activists in the self-described “people-powered movement” about their motivations, strategy and chances of making history on Thursday.
Belle Amall, 27, volunteer
We’ve just been out for our second canvassing session today here in South Ruislip, and the campaign for getting Ali elected has already knocked over a thousand doors today. How are you feeling?
– Amazing. Especially after campaigning today, getting such a warm response even from the opposition. Even people who have previously voted for the Tories have been really warm and willing to discuss the election. My favourite conversation today was ours earlier with a lady who has always voted Conservative, but we were able to talk about how the things that were important to her matter to the Labour Party as well, and I genuinely feel like we might have swayed her. I hope that on Thursday, she’ll be voting Labour.
As we experienced earlier, we’re in Tory heartlands now. Are conversations more difficult here than in other parts of the constituency?
– Not at all. As long as you have a kind approach, it’s always going to work well in your favour and I’ve definitely seen that on the door today. It’s all about trying to understand what’s important to the voters and adapting your approach to have that conversation and learn for future conversations, not to hammer down on people not voting Labour.
The Conservative candidate here in Uxbridge & South Ruislip is Prime Minister Boris Johnson who doesn’t show up to the Leader’s Debate, doesn’t show up to the local hustings and hasn’t knocked a single door. In stark contrast, Ali is out every single day talking to the community. What does that give the campaign?
– It’s incredible, really. We’re in rural parts of London, we’re not in the inner city, so being part of the community matters to people. People are really receptive to the fact that he lives here and he cares enough to stand in the cold every single day to talk about what he believes in. Having Ali with us makes a huge difference. People here do care. People dislike Boris so much because of his homophobia, racism, his remarks about single parents and so on. People don’t want him in power anymore. They look to Ali for a candidate who they believe and who will actually look after this constituency. Every Sunday I’ve been here, because I believe in him.
Ali Reza Milani, 25, parliamentary candidate
First of all, Ali, how are you feeling about the election? You seem optimistic.
– I am cold, but optimistic. I think what we have been able to do is build a broad, exciting, modern campaign that brings together people from all parts of the country and walks of life and ethnicities and the main strategy has been to talk to more people than he will. We’ve been able to get hundreds and thousands of people out on the doorstep talking to people. The experiences that most of the folks here have means that they can connect with people in a way that Boris Johnson never will. I’m extremely optimistic for what we can accomplish.
Many Labour candidates before you have been trying to get elected in this constituency. What makes you think that you will be the first candidate to unseat a sitting Prime Minister, and what makes this campaign any different?
– It’s simple. It’s because I actually live here. I’ve worked here. I’ve studied here. I’ve used the local hospitals here. We can connect with local people in a way that others may have had difficulty in doing. Boris Johnson is now more unpopular than he’s ever been. It is of course to my advantage that people have finally seen through him and his style of politics. But the reason I would win, if there was gonna be a number one reason, it would be all the amazing people here. The victory’s as much theirs as it is mine.
Earlier today, you said that if your campaign succeeds it’s not only you who are going to be elected but the whole movement. Would you care to elaborate on that?
– For so long in all parts of the world, politicians have been thinking that it is about them. My view has always been that the victory belongs as much to you and to all the folks that are knocking on doors today as it does to me. When you build movements and when you build campaigns where it’s not about an individual but all of us, it commits us to govern by the same principles if we’re elected: we make decisions together, we feel each other’s pain together, and we move forward together.
The press loves to call this election the “Brexit Election” as if that’s the only thing that matters to people. You have been knocking doors here in Uxbridge for almost a year. Do the voters here share that perception?
– No. This general election is as much about our hospitals, our schools, our police as it’s about Brexit. It’s about university fees, it’s about housing. There is no election that is about one single issue. It’s about what kind of world we want to live in, and that includes every aspect of our lives.
Alicia Jumman, 29, volunteer and boardrunner
First of all, why are you out here on a cold, cold weekend campaigning for Ali Milani?
– I decided to come here because on November 5, they had a rally here with Owen Jones and Ash Sarkar, and it was the most brilliant night. I decided that I would be spending my time here because I want to unseat Boris Johnson, but more importantly, I truly believe that Ali is a man of the people and would do really brilliant things for us if he gets into parliament.
This campaign consists of hundreds of people like you on the ground having conversations with voters here. How important are the volunteers for your campaign to get Ali elected?
– Everyone keeps saying that we are people powered movement and these aren’t just words. It is true. We are completely led by the people. Ali might be the person that decided to stand, and he’s brilliant. But this movement couldn’t be what it is without all the people. There’s a huge diversity of people coming from all over London and beyond – you guys from Copenhagen for example. And that diversity is very important. It’s proving to work so well on the doors.
You’re a so-called boardrunner in charge of a small group of canvassers. Care to explain to me what that entails?
– Of course! Boardrunners are given folders from the organizer detailing where we’re going and whose doors we’re knocking on. Next to the address, we’ll have any data that we have collected from previous conversations. Our job is to give people doors, let them knoc what data we might have from them in the past, and make sure we efficiently collect data of how people are intending to vote in the upcoming election. Since this is the last weekend, it’s key to know which houses we’re gonna knock on polling day, because we need to be efficiently targeting the right houses for guaranteed Labour voters to get out the vote. Our small group knocked over a 160 doors this morning, and we absolutely smashed it!
Just as in the 2017 General Election, the polls aren’t looking so good for the Labour Party and the prospect of a transformative government with Jeremy Corbyn in government. Yet you guys seem unfazed. Why is that?
– I’m not one for polls. I think the polls are biased. We know they’re not including the youth, we know they’re not including millions of newly registered voters and really many people on the left. Being out on the doors, we have to be positive. If I’m not positive when people are giving me their data and keeping the morale up then that is going to seep through the team. I’m super positive, and I really think we might give it to Boris Johnson here. Irrelevant of what happens, if we win or if we don’t, what we need to remember is this. This is the beginning of the battle. This is just the start of trying to make the best society.
James Clouting, 35, campaign manager
You’ve been working on this campaign for a long time now. There’s so few days to go, what are your thoughts on this final part of this campaign?
– I’m very optimistic. We haven’t just done our campaigning since the election was called, we chose Ali as our candidate over a year ago,, so it’s been well over a year and we’ve pretty much been campaigning since then. We had hundreds of people turn up this weekend, we send dozens of groups out canvassing, we’ve knocked on thousands of doors this weekend, so we’re really happy with what we’ve done. We’ve had amazing support from our local members who’ve come out on cold and windy nights like this and from people like you guys coming from all over Europe.
You’re the manager of this campaign. What’s your role in all this?
– The past three or four months, I’ve been dealing with all communications; emails and phone calls and texts that we’ve been getting. Been on social media as well. I’ve been coordinating all leafletting, door knocking, meetings. Making sure there’s boardrunners enough. I’ve been out most days as well leading groups door knocking doors and running boards.
That’s a lot of tasks. How are you feeling?
– I’m getting by and so is Ali I think on adrenaline and willpower to do this. There’s not much sleep, it’s just the adrenaline and the enthusiasm of everyone that’s helped that’s keeping us going. We’ve done all the door knocking, we obviously can, we’ve got three days left to go and obviously Thursday is polling day. We never thought we’d be in this position. It’s amazing that we have knocked on every door in the constituency and so now, it’s a matter of making sure all those people that have told us they’re voting Labour over the last few months actually remember to. If everyone who has told us they’re voting for Ali remembers to and are able to on Thursday, then I think it’s going to be really close.