A guide to surviving as a PPC

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Richard Robinson, winner of the ePolitix.com Report of the Year Award at the 2010 Researchers' Awards, reflects on the ups and downs of life as an aspiring MP.

Friday 12 September 2003 will always be a date that will be etched in my memory, one of those milestones in my life.

Did I graduate or get married, or did Leeds win the FA Cup? No.

It was the date I first got "approved" as a bona fide parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party; little did I know how inexorable work and life would be from that day onwards.

Right from the moment on that Friday which is now approaching seven years ago, something gripped me.

It's an insatiable appetite to reach that ultimate goal; to proudly represent the Labour Party and my constituents as their Labour Member of Parliament.

I duly stood for my first time in 2005 for Charnwood, Leicestershire, the sort of seat where they weigh the votes for the Tories as opposed to counting them.

But what is it really like – just being a parliamentary candidate, what advice what you give me, is it enjoyable and would you recommend it? Let's take these steps in order:

In some ways it's comparable to being on the X Factor (especially the latter stages).

One the one hand you can be as unpopular as Louis Walsh (depending of course about which party you stand for), on the other hand you need to give a near faultless performance week in week to a panel of judges (the public) who are at best unforgiving, at your slightest misfortune..

The pressure on you, just like for the X Factor finalists, is absolutely relentless.

You spend days, weeks and months, often with little sleep, and see little of the family.

For the May 2005 general election I was selected in January 2004, and started knocking on people's doors soon afterwards.

I did many hundreds of pieces of individual casework (anything from sorting out people's pension payments out to fixing lights in an elderly people's home).

Most weeks for over a year, I worked at least 17 hours a day, and that can involve anything from writing and delivering newsletters, mobilising supporters, writing press releases, pounding the streets canvassing, telephoning stuffing envelopes, talking to the media and so on.

We had some fantastic public meetings to try and rally the troops, and I shared a stage with Tony Benn and the late Robin Cook who both came to Charnwood and they (if not me) got a fantastic response.

Beware of the unexpected as well; particularly with the media as you are definitely in the spotlight all of the time.

I ended up appearing on live TV with Johnny Vaughan & Westlife (yes that's the real Johnny Vaughan and the real Westlife).

Being a PPC is clearly not for the faint hearted. For all of the effort I put in, I came second.

14,762 people loved me enough to put a cross against my name, but the winner, the Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell, amassed more than 20,000 votes.

I was gutted.

I was somewhat consoled a couple of weeks later when statisticians worked out that the swing against Labour in Charnwood was so small I actually took 2,500 votes off the Tories that I shouldn't have done (compared to the national swing).

My advice; never give up; keep persevering.

I'm still looking for a seat for this election after coming second in the selections for Shrewsbury and fourth in South Derbyshire.

My time as a PPC was almost definitely enjoyable, I loved every minute of it looking back and met some fantastic people.

Just be prepared to be worked, hassled and stretched as never before.

Richard Robinson is parliamentary assistant to Andy Reed MP.

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