Member-only story
How To Scare a Tory
Chipping Barnet is a fairly small constituency in the London borough of Barnet. It is at the end of the Northern Line and has a population of around 111,973 (2011 census). Since its creation in 1974, it has always been held by a Conservative and has been considered a ‘safe seat’; a constituency that will always be blue.
Barnet is one of the wealthier boroughs, but has pockets of deprivation and a diminishing amount of social housing thanks the the Conservative council’s habit for redeveloping estates and lowering the social housing numbers each time. Predominantly white (64%, 2011 census) it is well represented by other ethnicities and has the highest Jewish population in the UK.
Until 2017 it was considered a ‘safe seat’ by everyone, including the local opposition party. So much so that in the 2017 snap general-election, local Labour Party campaigners were told to go over to Enfield North and help in the campaign to get Joan Ryan re-elected rather than campaign against incumbent Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers. With limited manpower, all efforts were to be spent on getting Ryan re-elected in a seat the party thought they had a chance at winning.
By 2017, however, the Labour Party had changed. 2015 saw an increase in Labour Party membership and an increase in…
