Richard, a self-confessed ‘floating voter’, has voted Labour, Conservatives and even Green before. Standing outside Canada Water Library in Southwark, South London, where the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) collared him, he says he’s now thinking of opting for the Liberal Democrats. “They are more pro-European and it will help me with my job prospects,” the 49-year-old who declined to give his surname, says.
In 2016, almost 73 per cent of people voted to stay in the European Union (EU) in Southwark – the 11th highest remain vote in the UK. While Richard’s local MP Neil Coyle was a loud critic of Brexit, his party Labour has said it will not seek to re-join the EU. The Liberal Democrats meanwhile have said it remains their goal to do so.
It is residents like Richard who Rachel Bentley, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Old Southwark and Bermondsey is trying to win over ahead of the election on July 4. Until 2015, the area consistently returned a Liberal Democrat MP. But since the end of the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2015, the party’s vote here has been in freefall.
READ MORE:The South London area getting its first new MP in 40 years but they don’t know who they can trust
In 2015, the Liberal Democrat candidate Simon Hughes picked up 34 per cent of the vote when he lost for the first time to Neil Coyle. At the 2019 election, the Liberal Democrat candidate Humaira Ali received under 27 per cent. Coyle’s vote share meanwhile increased to over 54 per cent.
Bentley’s plan to win back voters to the party is to focus on her local record. She was elected to represent North Bermondsey on Southwark Council in 2022 and is deputy leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition.
“A lot of people are just really, really disillusioned and fed-up with everything,” she told the LDRS over the phone last Friday (June 21). “There has been a lot of loss of trust in politicians… and I think a lot of people say ‘what’s going to change?’ One of my arguments is ‘look I’m knocking on your door. I’m a hard working, local councillor. I promise to be visible and to help you get things done’. I don’t have aspirations to be the Prime Minister. I have the aspiration to be a really good constituency MP.”
Bentley says the biggest issue in the area is housing. Private rents are unaffordable to those on low wages. The local council is the largest local authority landlord in London but Bentley says a lot of the stock is old and her councillor inbox is filled with residents suffering from damp, mould and repair problems.
The Liberal Democrats have committed to building 380,000 homes per year, including 150,000 social homes annually as part of their plan to tackle the housing crisis. Labour have promised to build the equivalent of 300,000 homes each year and promised ‘the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation’.
Both parties have vowed to scrap no-fault evictions. One area where the Liberal Democrats have gone further is a manifesto commitment to give councils the powers to end Right to Buy in their areas. Labour meanwhile has pledged to reduce discounts for people buying their council home.
Coyle was invited for an interview, which he initially accepted but then pulled out of. Coyle’s assistant blamed his tight schedule and invited the LDRS to attend a hustings instead. Coyle would have been asked about housing, his achievements as the area’s MP for nine years and his conduct if the interview had gone ahead.
In 2023, an investigation found Coyle had made racist remarks to a journalist and engaged in ‘foul-mouthed and drunken abuse’ of a parliamentary assistant to another MP. He later apologised for his behaviour and told Southwark News in 2023 that he no longer drank, having previously been consuming 12 pints a day.
On the streets, Coyle barely registers. Voters are more concerned with the record of Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. In Rotherhithe, Fafa, 23, says she is unimpressed with the likely future Prime Minister and will probably vote Green. Her main priority is the NHS (she has been on a waiting list for three years) and tax. “I think they are all terrible. This new person [Keir Starmer], he may as well be a Conservative.”
At the Blue marketplace in the centre of Bermondsey, David Weed is also not keen on Starmer and is considering voting Reform. The 75-year-old is unhappy about levels of immigration and the cost of living.
“I don’t think that Starmer is any good. […] For about 40 years I voted Labour and then I voted Conservative last time and now I’m thinking about Reform. I don’t know who you can trust. It doesn’t matter who you get in, all they do is take.”
Despite some residents’ reservations, Labour are on track to win Bermondsey and Old Southwark with a reduced 45 per cent of the vote, according to a poll by Survation published on June 15. The Liberal Democrats are predicted to finish second on just over 27 per cent – similar to the party’s result in 2019.
Bentley faces a race against time to break through with voters before July 4. Does she think the party has had a credibility problem since the coalition government?
Bentley pauses, inhales sharply. “I think it would be fair to say that the coalition was damaging to our party. And I’m sure many people, if they could turn back the hands of time, would maybe make a different decision.” She adds that she joined the party in 2017, two years after the end of the coalition government.
Back in Bermondsey, the weather has taken a dip and grey clouds appear to have dampened people’s mood. One man tells the LDRS, he’s not voting because ‘they’re all w*****s’.
On the Kirby estate, situated at the edge of the area Bentley represents on the local council, England flag bunting draped across the car park for the Euros is thrashing menacingly in the wind. One resident, Ismael Doumbia, is keen to make a start on his drive to Oxford before rush hour hits but agrees to chat briefly.
He’s against Rishi Sunak’s national service plan for 18-year-olds (he doesn’t want his kids to do it if he has children himself) and will probably cast a reluctant vote for Labour. The Liberal Democrats don’t register for him.
“I think that all parties are liars and they have an agenda to win,” he says. “There was one debate where he [Keir Starmer] was complaining about tax and then they asked the Labour leader ‘what would you do to change it?’ And he was just waffling. Their agenda isn’t for the people.”
Bentley thinks she can re-engage with voters by speaking to them on the doorstep. She has been so busy doing so that she can’t remember what the last thing she read was. She hasn’t got the time. There are a lot of doors left to knock.
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