Labour candidates told to focus their efforts on party's battleground seats

Labour election candidates have been told they are doing too much campaigning in their own safe seats and must spend more time in battleground constituencies, causing friction with those concerned about a backlash from Labour voters.

- Jessica Elgot

The instructions from Labour HQ have met opposition from some candidates, especially in London and big cities. A number of those in innercity constituencies said they were uncomfortable about ignoring voters locally, especially over the party's stance on Gaza. Others said they were ignoring the missives from HQ because of a need to campaign in new parts of their constituency that they had inherited because of boundary changes.

One senior party figure said candidates had been told at the start of the election campaign that they should focus on tight battleground seats and should not spend time in very safe seats or unwinnable ones.

However, the person said that in the first three weeks of the campaign the number of target seats had significantly increased as the potential scale of a Labour victory had grown. As a result, London candidates were campaigning in areas previously regarded as safe Tory seats, such as Chelsea and Fulham.