“I think drinking in Wetherspoons was punishment enough”: an interview with Giraffist

The unsuccessful New Britain candidate for Sussex speaks with WillShakespeare99 about losing his race, New Britain’s fortunes, and the Electoral Commission’s failings.

Giraffist was the New Britain candidate for Sussex, and served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in the Labour-Green Official Opposition before that.

After a long train journey to Brighton, I eventually meet Giraffist at a pub in the city. Smiling, but aged, and with a remarkably long neck, he’s a rather grandfatherly figure, exuding vibes of understated experience, but also of light heartedness. It doesn’t feel as though he takes himself too seriously, and yet it would be silly to underestimate him. He’s at ease talking to people, having a lengthy chat with the barman about traffic, eventually spilling into, somehow, a discussion about Brexit – a topic about which he is both clearly knowledgeable and passionate. He is quick on his feet. Having eventually gotten our drinks, we make our way to a table to begin our interview.



Giraffist was, until recently, Shadow Welsh Secretary in the Labour-Green Official Opposition, before he became the third member of akc8’s New Britain party – an offshoot from Labour, formed not long after the decision to leave the Grand Coalition. Mr 8 had been outspoken in his support for the Government, and described his feeling that the party that he had once led, in GEs 7 and 8, no longer spoke to him, painting the picture of a “toxic” environment. Of course, ElliottC99, the party’s leader, went on to do much better than expected in Friday’s general election, whilst New Britain narrowly failed to take Sussex, which voted for One Love’s Dame Emma – a former Deputy Leader of Labour. The party was unsuccessful in winning a list seat in West Midlands due to their failure to submit list candidates.



I want to find out from Mr ist what his views are on his defeat, on New Britain’s errors, and why they failed to make headwinds despite the apparent trouble Labour was in just weeks ago, and what he thinks of the biggest story breaking just a couple of hours before our meeting – the Electoral Commission’s embarrassing confession that they had made an error in counting list votes and calculating list seats. I started by asking him how he feels about the result in Sussex.



“Naturally, I’m disappointed by the fact I was not able to achieve my own personal goal of being able to sit in Westminster and represent my constituency this term. However, for such a new movement, I’m also quite proud of what we’ve achieved by coming in second in two constituencies across the country and formulating a strong New Britain base that we can now build off going into the future.”



When asked what he would like to say to the new MP, Dame Emma, Giraffist did not mince his words, telling me “To Emma, I can only wish her luck and implore her to offer stability to the people of Sussex. This term will see the end of the Article 50 period and the subsequent debate on how the United Kingdom can begin to forge its new identity on the global stage with the opportunities that Brexit has presented to us. It is vital that she, as the representative for Sussex, does not allow her constituents’ voice to go unheard in Westminster. This means respecting the clear and decisive mandate presented to leave the Single Market and the European Union, both in the previous referendum and in last week’s General Election.”

“Given her notorious reputation for defecting rapidly throughout the term, it is just as vital that she does not betray her constituents for the sake of her own political career. The people of Sussex did not vote for a shifting affiliation or inconsistent representation, and so it’s important that she stays put for the entire term to allow for a solid and reliable voice for her constituents. If she cannot do this and wishes to leave for another party, I am of the opinion that the seat should go to an immediate by-election to ensure that she is not using the voice of Sussex as a partisan tool to get ahead in Westminster.”



“What do you think, given Dame Emma’s position on Brexit and her habits of defection, led to the people of Sussex selecting her over you and do you believe she deserved to win?”, I asked him in response. His fluent reply made it clear he’d considered the result carefully.



“I mean, first and foremost, the Libertarian candidate did split the vote and took many of the pro-Brexit voters that my campaign was possibly unable to reach personally. That being said, there was a majority in Sussex for candidates that supported respecting the democratic voice of the British people in taking us out of Europe, which is something that Emma must now respect as the elected MP.” He stopped briefly for a sip of his beer. “As for her habits of defection, I tried not to get bogged down in the campaign in spending all my time attacking her as a person, but one side effect of this was the lack of widespread awareness as to the instability that her election presents for Sussex’s representation in Parliament. I aim to reverse this effect throughout the term by holding her to account publicly to ensure that her rampant desire for uncertainty does not go unchecked. I think her campaign up until it was suspended was poor, as was her contribution to the regional debate, but enough people felt that she was worthy of a chance to represent us in Westminster to give her a chance at doing so. By those standards, I think she deserved to win as she gathered the necessary support, but a change in attitude is absolutely necessary from her.”



One Love who now control Sussex are a staunchly anti-Brexit party, of course, running diametrically opposite to what Giraffe is saying Emma should do. “You say that you believe she must now support the decision to leave the European Union, but do you not think she has a mandate to do otherwise, given she was elected as an MP for a party strongly against Brexit?” I suggest.



“If my calculations are correct, over 59% of the constituency of Sussex voted for candidates that went into the campaign supporting Brexit. Even though Emma received a plurality of the votes, she did not receive an absolute majority. There was absolutely no mandate handed to Emma to keep us in the European Union as the MP for Sussex.”



I want to dig in a bit to New Britain and their fortunes in this election, specifically whether he believes being in New Britain prevented his being elected, given the party’s defeats across the country. “I don’t think New Britain hurt my chances of being elected.” He replied point blank. “We had a positive campaign in Sussex, where we outlined directly how our policies would work to boost the local economy and provide employment opportunities for the community. As for elsewhere, the West Midlands saw a fun and entertaining series of events led by our leader, akc8, which culminated in a strong second place in Shropshire and Staffordshire. Yes, the night did not go as we’d hoped, but I believe that it was a powerful result in terms of vote share nonetheless.”



“Why do you believe New Britain failed to win any seats?”



“Well, an administrative error entirely on our part led to us not being able to win any list seats in the West Midlands and the South East, which dramatically hindered our chances. In retrospect, I think we were in a difficult predicament given how we’d formed so close to the election, meaning we were unable to prove ourselves as an active and stable term-time party as well as one in campaigning season.” Though he is absolutely clear that he doesn’t believe anybody should pay for that error. “I think drinking in Wetherspoons was punishment enough. But, seriously, an error was made and all we can do now is move past it and continue working hard to spread our message to the British people.” When pressed on whether akc8 had his continued confidence as leader, he is unequivocal in stating “Absolutely.”



He is equally unwavering on what he believes the future holds for his party, and for him. There have been suggestions that the party could now fold and members may either filter back to Labour, or to the Tories. According to Giraffist, there seems to be no chance of that. Though there is a moment of hesitation before he offers a reaction to my query. “Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) for all our critics, we’re not going anywhere. Regardless of how many seats that we’ve got in Parliament, we’ve now built a strong voter base to build on and a manifesto that we can campaign for. Personally, I’ll be spending my term continuing to fight for the issues that Sussex cares about, whilst also ensuring we keep holding Emma and her antics to account as our elected local MP.”



“So you’re hoping to try again for Sussex at the next election, as a New Britain candidate?”



“I have every intention of standing in Sussex next election.”



“For New Britain?”



“Naturally.”



But it’s the party’s closeness to the Conservatives, despite portraying themselves as an alternative centre-left voice to Labour, that has attracted a great deal of criticism. Indeed, the party endorsed Tory candidates across the country. I wanted to hear his response to these criticisms and find out whether the party would deal with Labour in the future. “We opted to only endorse the Conservative Party in certain constituencies as we felt that they were the only alternative choice that would be willing to work with us to pursue a Brexit deal that was best for the United Kingdom, whilst still being able to offer a pragmatic plan to modernise the British economy that would support working people. We do not agree with them on all their policies, but mutually supporting them enabled us to have the best chance at pursuing our agenda and getting elected us to Parliament.”



“Would you opt for cooperation with the Conservatives over Labour?”



I think it’d be inappropriate to go ahead and say that we’d only work with one party over another, but at this time I’m not confident that the Labour Party are entirely supportive of the result of the referendum on our membership of the European Union and the Single Market. Whilst their manifesto made no specific pledges to do so, there were rumours abound before the election that the Labour Party membership voted in a clear majority to endeavour to hold another costly and wildly unnecessary vote on the issue of Europe. Before I consider supporting any potential support with Labour, I would seek reassurances that this isn’t something that the leadership are considering backing as a party. Other than that, I’m open to working with any party – Conservative, Labour or otherwise – as long as the end result is beneficial to the British people.”



But of course, the big story on everybody’s lips is the correction of general election results earlier this afternoon, with regional lists across the country being declared as incorrect. Many have even called for the resignation of senior Electoral Commission figures who have, perhaps unfairly in the eyes of some, received sharp criticism. “Do you agree with some figures that somebody needs to resign for the error?” I asked Giraffist on the subject.



“Mistakes will always be made – if we force every person who makes one to resign, we’d be left with nobody left to do the job. I think answers need to be given as to how such a large error could be made in something as monumental as a General Election, however.” And, of course, with his result on a knife edge, I wonder if there is some doubt as to the legitimacy of the Sussex vote count. He doesn’t seem to believe that there is any reason for concern in that regard.” Whilst the result is not necessarily what I was hoping for or what I was expecting, I now have full confident that the result is correct and that the votes have been counted up correctly.”



It is clear, then, from talking to him that, whilst Giraffist is not the new MP for Sussex this time around, he is not ready to retire from the political scene, nor is he about to give up his hopes of being the New Britain MP for Sussex. This is man with an extremely varied political history (having been a senior Green and Liberal Democrat previously) who has a seemingly clear future, and set of goals, mapped out. Whether he will find a place for him, and his party, in an increasingly crowded political climate remains to be seen.