Labour has told its staff that nobody can take time off this weekend to go to Glastonbury even with the party holding a huge lead in the polls.
An insider confirmed “there’s a three line whip” on everyone not to go to Glastonbury this year with the final week of campaignng about to begin. Even Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been forced to abandon her plans to go to the music festival with headliners Coldplay, Shania Twain, SZA and Dua Lipa.
The festival which once echoed to “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” has become another symbol of “No Jeremy Corbyn” from a party which has expelled its former leader in a ruthless charge to regain power.
Instead staff who have been working day and night in Labour’s swanky offices in Southwark just south of the Thames will be redeployed to “key marginals” in the next 48 hours.
“Now the manifesto is done there is less for people to do here and we need boots on the ground in target seats,” The Independent was told on a visit to the headquarters.
There is some discussion over what “target seats” now means with the way the polls now suggest that constituencies which once seemed out of reach and impossible now being within reach. A sign of that was the decision by Rishi Sunak to spend more time in his Richmond and Northallerton seat in Yorkshire because of the danger of being the first sitting prime minister to lose his constituency in an election.
The revelation came on a visit by The Independent to the sprawling open plan office where the ruthless Labour operation has planned its election victory.
Only Sir Keir Starmer has his own small office with different “departments” nestling next to one another across the expanse.
The area is littered with diet coke cans, bottles of high energy power drinks and half eaten oranges in a clear sign on what has fuelled Labour’s march to power over the last few weeks.
But with the policy teams work now done the floor is now emptying as they are bussed off to different parts of the UK to make sure the poll predictions of a massive victory come true.
“Not many actual votes have been cast yet and we cannot take anything for granted.”
There are other signs of what has helped motivate this winning team apart from the discount on drinks offer at a nearby pub.
A plastic model of Liz Truss looks down on people near to the main entrance to the operation perhaps as a constant reminder of the “mini budget” that dashed Tory hopes of a revival. Ms Truss has featured on many of Labour’s campaign messages, not least the question about why Rishi sunak permitted her to be a candidate.
Labour have a hope of picking up her Norfolk South West seat which seems to be vulnerable for the first time in history.
But while the abiding message in the 2024 campaign has been “change” – change from Jeremy Corbyn, change for the country – there is a giant reminder of Labour’s socialist roots.
A poster from the 1910 election – well before Labour was a proper national force and the two main parties with the Liberals and the Tories – dominates the room close to Sir Keir’s office.
With marching workers it proclaims: “Forward! The day is breaking”.
Campaign manager Morgan McSweeney can be seen pacing around nervously but there is an air of confidence in the room that after 14 years of irrelevance Labour is back and about to seize power again.
A room filled with light and determination seems to reflect the end of a long dark chapter in Labour history. Who needs Glastonbury when you can almost taste victory?
