28 Jun 2024
As the battle for the new constituency of Harpenden and Berkhamsted enters its final days, political campaigning has escalated into personal attacks on candidates in a bid to secure victory.
Nobody thought the seat was going to become a warzone, but in the weeks since the General Election was announced things have substantially heated up.
Last week, on the same date that the postal votes were sent out, stickers were illegally fly-posted across the constituency highlighting past work Conservative candidate Nigel Gardner carried out in Russia.
They stated: “The Conservatives have chosen Nigel Gardner as their candidate for Berkhamsted & Harpenden, a four time failed Labour candidate and former lobbyist for President Putin.”
Under the Representation of the People Act, campaign material must contain specific details to show who is responsible for publishing it. These details are known as an ‘imprint’. The imprint helps to ensure there is transparency for voters about who is campaigning. Candidate election material is any material that can be reasonably regarded as intended to promote or procure the election of a candidate at an election, even if it is not officially produced.
The Putin stickers contain no such information, and the returning officer for the constituency called in the police to investigate.
On Tuesday a man was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, harassment and an offence relating to the Representation of the People Act (1983).
Nigel Gardner has responded to the sticker campaign: “It’s saddening. It’s disappointing.
“Electoral law is there to keep elections fair. It is bigger than any one of us – or our parties. It is the rules of our democracy.
“It would be inappropriate to say anything more.”
Victoria Collins’ agent, Sam Oliver, has denied any link between the official campaign and the posters: “I am very happy to give definitive and on the record confirmation that these posters are not from or supported by the Liberal Democrat campaign.”
Meanwhile, furious debate continues over who will be the main challengers come July 4, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both portraying the seat as a two-horse race – albeit with different participants in the steeplechase.
A recent poll by Survation, published in The Sunday Times, put Conservative candidate Nigel Gardner neck-and-neck with Labour’s Zara Layne on 28.5 and 28.1 per cent respectively, with Liberal Democrat Victoria Collins trailing on 20.8 per cent.
If this pans out, Harpenden and Berkhamsted will be one of just 13 Tory seats remaining out of the 52 in the Blue Wall across the Home Counties.
Their analysis was based on 42,269 online and telephone interviews, conducted between May 31 and June 13.
Meanwhile, campaign literature for the Liberal Democrats in the seat is based on the result of the old Hitchin and Harpenden constituency in 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, and arguably out of date.
However, candidate Victoria Collins highlighted various factors which she says supports the argument that the election will be a clash between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in Harpenden, Berkhamsted, Tring and the villages.
This includes tactical voting websites like Tactical.Vote, tacticalvote.co.uk, Best for Britain and getvoting.org all recommending voting for the Lib Dems in order to get the Conservative government out.
Bookmakers oddschecker.com have the Liberal Democrats as the front runner, the latest poll from YouGov predicts a small majority over the Tories, and Ipsos MORI’s latest MRP shows the Lib Dems on 38 per cent, the Conservatives on 31 per cent and Labour on just 17 per cent.
All of this evidence, Victoria insists, confirms the argument that the final decision on July 4 will be between her and Nigel Gardner.
“Since slashing the Conservative majority in 2019 in Harpenden, Redbourn and Wheathampstead and our villages, local people have continued to show their support for the Liberal Democrats. We won an outright majority in Dacorum Council (which covers Berkhamsted, Tring, Ashridge, Flamstead and Markyate) and have around 80% of the councillors across the new seat.
“On the other hand, Labour have declared that Harpenden and Berkhamsted is a ‘non-battleground seat’ and the Labour volunteer platform is diverting people elsewhere. The Labour candidate is a Bedfordshire councillor and has not been present at the hustings so far. Labour do not have any district or county councillor in this constituency.
“We have been running an intense campaign with hundreds of volunteers joining to support us, we are reaching out to thousands of voters every week. Our aim is to show that during this vital election, voting Liberal Democrat is a vote for change and is the only real alternative to the Conservatives in Harpenden and Berkhamsted.”
The latest Liberal Democrat campaign leaflet has also changed tactics, moving away from policies to make a direct attack on the reputation and ethics of the Tory candidate.
As covered in depth by the St Albans Times back in September, he has been accused of being a lobbyist for the Russian government because his public affairs firm GPlus entered into contracts with the Kremlin in 2006.
At the time, he offered an explanation for how this came about: “The job was literally to put Russian officials in front of the Western media and open them up to Western media scrutiny…
“There was a real feeling and a real sense that Russia was on a new path… I think the fact that Russia was engaging more with the Western media was a very, very good thing and really, really important. Because if [the Western media] asked difficult questions about things, they had to answer them. And if they couldn’t answer them, they had to go away and think about why they couldn’t answer them.
“Call it lobbying, call it media relations, call it what you want, but it was just a contract to help them improve the way they dealt with the Western media.
“I went part-time in G-Plus in about March 2007 and left the end of 2009. So I’d left the company by the time things really soured.”
Extracts from this interview were used in the Liberal Democrats’ leaflet, which also highlighted how Nigel had previously strived to become a Labour Parliamentary candidate before being selected for the Harpenden and Berkhamsted seat.
It accused him of defending his record of working for Putin’s Russia, rather than distancing himself, adding: “No wonder many people across our part of Hertfordshire are asking, ‘whose side is he on?’”
Victoria Collins explained why her campaign has taken a fresh approach to the fight: “This election is about policies and the issues that matter – that’s why I’ve spent years campaigning for action on the cost of living crisis, improve access to NHS services and fix the social care crisis, and to tackle the climate emergency and stop the dumping of raw sewage into local rivers.
“However, this election is also about who is the best MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted – and a lot of local people have been dismayed to hear the Conservative candidate defend his record of working for Putin’s Russian government. We believe residents deserve to know the choice in front of them at this election – more Conservative chaos with a candidate who lobbied for the Kremlin, or a fair deal with the hardworking local Liberal Democrats.”
Meanwhile, her campaign received a fresh boost this week from comedian and actor Steve Coogan, five years after he gave his endorsement to St Albans’ Daisy Cooper ahead of her election as MP.
So can lightning strike twice and he secure victory for the Lib Dems in Harpenden and Berkhamsted?
“I hope so. I just want to get the Tories out and the Lib Dem candidates generally have values that I adhere to but the principal message is to vote tactically.
“You know my loyalty shifts, I’ve got certain issues with Labour at the moment but generally I support them, but the most important thing is to get the Tories out in a decisive way and that means voting tactically, so in certain constituencies voting Lib Dem, and in others voting Labour. So that’s what I’m advising people to do.”
