What is a political insurance policy, and why do you need one?
When you're working on Plan A for your political career, developing a Plan B might be the last thing on your mind. Learn how to prepare yourself early and intentionally.
As the field of politics has become more unpredictable, those of you who are in it for the long haul with high-level goals must start from a solid foundation of support. Regardless of what country you're in, it's never been more crucial to prepare yourself early and intentionally. I’ve had my fair share of conversations with candidates and politicians with big ambitions, and this is my advice to all of them.
You need to develop your public profile, build a community of supporters, mobilise people for good and have a backup plan. Just like an insurance policy, you need to set it up and pay for it before you need it. If you wait, it won’t be there when you need it the most.
Nurture your profile
Building your personal brand as a politician isn’t just about climbing the greasy pole. It’s about owning your relationship with supporters at every level. They might be interested in your campaigns locally or nationally; they might even think you could go all the way to lead the country. While you can’t be everything to everyone, take the time to understand who you are, what your unique contribution is and what you care about. Once you're clear on those points, use them to drive the conversation forward.
By building up a coherent and consistent profile outside of your network, you'll find opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise. If no one knows who you are, it's unlikely that you'll get the same opportunities to make a difference. Conscientiously and intentionally developing your profile makes you memorable. It helps people immediately understand who you are and how they can connect with and work with you.
That's going to lead to more options. Political promotions, media appearances, opportunities to speak at high-profile events, or opportunities to publish interesting content. And, when you’re done with politics, the work you've done building your public profile can lead to an excellent job in which your personal brand is of value. People are going to want to work with you because they know you have a unique contribution to make. You're not just any old politician.
Build your own list--and start today
If you harbour long-term ambitions to do more than what you're currently doing, especially if you are thinking of running for office or a serious senior position, then you need to start building your own list of supporters today.
It's more authentic and impactful to work on building a long-term relationship with people from the start. Ask them to sign up to receive updates from you, get them involved in your work, and keep them up to date with your efforts, even when you're starting on small or local campaigns. If you only start to do so because there's a general election or a leadership campaign coming up, you'll come across as cynical and self-serving.
It takes months and sometimes years to build up a proper supporter network, and it’s about five times as hard to recruit new people as it is to keep them. Even if you do a great job of keeping them, it’s estimated that your list will decrease by 20-30% each year, so you'll need to continue to acquire new supporters to address that.
Who owns the data?
It might sound like boring advice, but find professional guidance on how you collect your data and who the data controller is. GDPR has changed the game and just because you collect the data, it might not make it yours if you do so under a party umbrella.
What are you going to share?
Be clear with your subscribers about how you're going to engage them. How frequently are you going to communicate with the list? What is its purpose? Are you sharing news about what you’re up to, offering insights as an expert, sending fun facts? If you want to build your brand more long-term, or you have greater aspirations than local politics, then it’s also worth giving people the option to subscribe to either news related to their local area or to your work more nationally.
How can you build your list?
Think through your current workflows, and identify opportunities to bring people closer to your work by asking them to sign up for updates. You can ask when you host events, attend as a guest speaker, promote on social media, and also include it in your email signature and on your website.
Leverage your list to support your causes
As you build up your profile and your list, you'll have opportunities to effectively mobilise an audience that connects with you for a cause you care about. It could be a campaign to raise awareness, to advocate for a change in the law or to raise money for something important to you. People who are already invested in you are more likely to also be invested in the issues you put front and centre.
Accidents happen, and you need a parachute
In politics, one day you're in and the next you can be out. It could be by your own choice or because someone has chosen that for you. UK politics has certainly been turbulent since the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, and since then it really has been one long-running political soap opera. There are all sorts of pressures and considerations that come along with office, and you can't control all variables.
Think about the difference between an American and a European campaign. The vast majority of American campaigns are more independent than European ones, because individual candidates are mostly responsible for their own success. They're responsible for infrastructure, funding and their overall campaign messaging. That makes for more diversity of thought but also more short-term thinking, because candidates only need to think of themselves and their own electoral success rather than party success. They also don’t need their party's permission to run.
Contrarily in Europe, candidates often rely heavily on their political parties to get approved to run on their behalf, for infrastructure, funding and overall advice. This reliance makes it easier to enforce party discipline and top-down messaging, because going outside the standard framework could mean the end of your career. It makes it harder for outsiders to break through if they don’t fit the mould and renders even the most established politicians replaceable.
So what happens when you're cut loose?
In February 2019, there was a row between the Labour Party and Joan Ryan, one of the eight former Labour MPs who joined the Independent Group later Change UK (fun fact - five of them are writing a book). The row centred around one of the MPs trying to access supporters' personal data, especially canvassing data, that had been collected by them while they campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. However, the Party was the data controller, rather than the individual MPs.
Then in September 2019, 21 UK Conservative MPs were suspended from the Conservative Party when they voted against a “no-deal” Brexit scenario. For many it came as a shock, myself included. I thought this might happen one day for one or two MPs, but I’d never imagined it would happen for that many MPs at once. The majority of them decided not to stand in the following general election. Some landed on their feet because they had built up their own profiles, a couple defected to another party, and the ones who decided to stand as independent candidates didn’t get re-elected.
I hope you can see how being in control of your own communication platforms, owning your data and building your profile over time means you have options. If you don’t build your own brand, your victories and losses are likely to be tied to the political party you belong to. Despite what most elected officials believe, it’s rare that a politician is truly elected off the back of personal rather than party votes. Your insurance policy is there for you whether you want to take a deeply unpopular view, if someone takes it on your behalf, or if you're just thinking ahead to a life after politics. Don't just rely on party support or your close networks. Put together a strong and authentic profile and you'll be ready for anything.