A socialist party is pushing leaflets through Trinity ward letterboxes urging voters to spoil their by-election ballots by writing SOCIALISM across the paper.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), a Marxist party founded in 1904 and no relation to the Labour Party, is not standing a candidate in the by-election on Thursday 27 August. Its leaflet instead asks voters to reject all five candidates on the ballot paper, and to make that rejection visible.
“Get down to the polling station. Take the pencil. And write SOCIALISM right across the ballot paper,” the leaflet says. One side is a mock ballot paper, with SOCIALISM in giant letters filling one of the boxes.
The party expects to need at least 2,000 leaflets to cover the ward. Around 900 have already gone through letterboxes, mostly near Tooting Bec underground station and in the north of the ward near Wandsworth Common, and the rest are planned for the coming two weekends. A poster near the tube station may follow, the party’s London Branch secretary Adam Buick told Putney.news.
The leaflet’s argument is that a spoilt ballot registers in a way that staying at home does not. “Spoilt ballots get counted and published. Sitting on sofas doesn’t,” it says. That is accurate: when the result is declared, the returning officer also states how many ballot papers were rejected, and why.
As far as the party can tell, Buick said, only Labour and the Conservatives are otherwise leafleting the ward.
Socialism was on an actual Trinity ballot paper as recently as May, when a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate stood in the borough-wide elections.
The by-election was called after Labour councillor Lizzy Dobres resigned her seat two months after winning it, and control of Wandsworth Council could turn on the result. The Conservatives hold 29 seats to Labour’s 27 and govern through an agreement with independent councillor Malcolm Grimston. Winning Trinity would give them a majority of their own.
When the result is declared, the returning officer will announce how many ballot papers were rejected. That is the number the SPGB is trying to move.
Voting in the Trinity by-election
Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 27 August. You will need photo ID to vote in person. Anyone without an accepted form can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate until 5pm on Wednesday 19 August. Full details are on Wandsworth Council’s by-election page.
